99th Hunger Games: Quiet Rebel
by AlphaZero21
Summary: District 9 always expects the worst. They always lose their tributes. People are dying on the streets, and people are being worked to death with little reward. Now, with the the 99th Hunger Games officially arriving, District 9 has to reap another batch of tributes. Even if rebellion has been quieted... It seems as that's what will start the demise of the Capitol.
1. Exception

**3/20/17 - Okay okay... Yeah, these early chapters were pretty bad but I can fix this! Trust me...**

Sweat begins dripping down my face as I continue my walk from the bar to my house in District 9. It's always hot in the summer in District 9. However, today feels a little hotter. Maybe it's because of the reapings which are tomorrow.

The reapings for the 99th annual Hunger Games. The Hunger Games were established 99 years ago as punishment for the districts rebellion. From what I can tell you, it takes shenanigans for District 9 to get anywhere in Hunger Games. This is why we only have 2 living victors. Only one of them is actually young enough to mentor either way. I feel that it's kind of shocking we have any at all considering how bad we do in the games. The last victor we had was over 15 years ago.

Even so, if anything has been proven, the Hunger Games have been effective. There has been very little rebellion since the Hunger Games began and if there is any, it may not be intentional. Just look at Haymitch Abernathy of District 12. I was told that he used the force field to his advantage which in the end helped him win but for some reason it was seen as... cheating I guess... so anyways his family was murdered 2 months after the games ended. District 12's latest victor, Katniss Everdeen, put flowers on the little girl from 11's body after she died. It actually did cause a riot in 11 but that was ended pretty quickly and her family was fine. [Is it just me or does 12 manage to be slightly more rebellious than every other district]

Other times, not so much. After Blight of District 7 won his games, he started spouting some anti-capitol stuff which got him the haymitch treatment. More recently, Lint of District 8, Winner of the 98th Hunger Games). Before His games could even begin, he threw a shoe during the 60 minute countdown in order to take out all of the landmines which could cause a chain reaction and kill ALL the tributes before the games could begin. For that rebellious act alone, the Capitol (And the citizens as well) hate him, his district hates him and now his family is dead.

If anything, I'm confident that nobody in the districts, not even the victors like the establish themselves with the games. Most victors lock themselves up in their houses in the victors villages until they overdose or something like that. Not like I'm blaming them. You can't walk into an arena and out without viewing things differently. Nothing can be the same. The capitol will remind you, every, waking second.

I restlessly open the door to my house. My dad is nowhere to be seen. "I'm home dad." I announce. "Foods on the table." He tells me. He must be in bed. Everyday before the reapings, they make us work harder than we should because we all have to go to bed early. Imagine waking up late for the reapings. It's never happened in District 9 for all I know but it's obvious that it'd probably end with your death.

I go to the table and see our food. A few slices of bread. We're lucky this time. We barely get anything here in District 9 for all the hard work we put into the grain work.

I grab one small slice of bread and put a bottle of alcohol on the table for my dad. My dad has stopped drinking but he can't help but snatch a bottle every now in then. Though it mostly happens around reaping time and the games.

My dads probably to tired right now to even care. Working at the bar is also pretty tiring since you have a bunch of drunk people yelling at you and shouting a bunch of nonsense. Even though I'm 14, I was guaranteed the job because my best friends family owns the bar and so he asked his family to hire me. I was glad to be doing something to get ourselves food. It pays pretty well considering how many drunk people live here.

I walk into my room which has one small bed which I jump into. For the past 3 years I've always had a gut feeling that I'm going to be picked. Though it hasn't happened yet and in all honesty, why would I get picked. _But then again Dagan... someone has to be picked every year..._

If I am reaped, I'm not sure what to say to all the people around me. I then realize that my eyes aren't getting heavy. I'm wide awake, and worried... just like every year. I don't want to lose sleep so I decide to think randomly. I try to think something positive, like my friends, the few cool things we've done at school, a world without the Hunger Games. I realize that I'm back to square one again and so I choose to jump out of bed and pace around like an idiot. Hours pass and I'm still not tired.

If I'm picked, I'm gonna look like a wreck. Not like I haven't the past 2 years but it's not like my name was picked. I always looked at the kids who get picked with a lot of guilt. I'm hoping that I won't get picked, however in a way, I'm hoping someone else will be picked.

I'm hoping the odds will be in my favor and in the end, I wont get picked. I lay back down only to feel tired. I try to continue thinking about random stuff. Our escort, Agota speaks with an accent that all capitol citizens have. It's so weird in it's own way. Also, her hair is just so random, blue with streaks of gold last year. I never understood why people from the Capitol look so...

And then I fell asleep...

* * *

 **The Next Day...**

* * *

"Hurry up Dagan. I picked out clothes for you this year." My dad shakes me awake. "You did?" I ask. "Yeah, since the reapings are stressful, I decided that from this point on, I'll make your clothes on this day only." He tells me. "Uh, sure." I say. "What time is it?" I ask. "11:30." He tells me.

"What?! I need to hurry then." I say, grabbing my clothes. "Aren't you going to take a bath?" Dad asks. "No. I don't have time." I begin to change. He leaves me alone to think. After I change, dad begins to hurry me along. I run along to the central square of the district. When I get there, It's nearly 1 O'clock which is the time reapings begin.

I line up for the thing where they take our blood. As they cut my finger, I look over to the 14 year olds section in near the back. I notice my best friend who is already here early.

I roll my eyes as they finish taking some of my blood and I begin slowly making my way towards the front of the justice building...

* * *

 _Yes people, this is a remastered version of the chapter. Not exactly remade since it's 90% of all the original stuff but kind of moved around so it would be easier to understand. PS. When I wrote that first chapter, I didn't know how to do paragraphs lol..._


	2. Run

**4-13-17 Remade for you people. This chapter was originally only around 2K words. Now it's 4K... a lot for my stories... Enjoy!**

* * *

I take my spot in the 14 year old boy section. "Hey, Dagan. Nice seeing you here." Stovall waves. I nod. "You really have nothing better to say at this moment, do you?" I laugh. He rolls his eyes and nods.

"Of course. What else. We're best friends and we've already said our witty introduction lines." He grins. All the other teens are busy trying to keep the topic away from the reapings because... well we don't want our blood to burn do we? _Matter of fact, it's hot out today..._

It's around this time is when the mayor of District 9, Mayor Barley, comes out and recalls the treaty of treason, introduces the escorts and all that usual stuff. Of course, if you tried your hardest to search for someone who actually gives a shit then you'd be wasting your time.

District 9's escort, Agota of 12 years introduces herself like she does every year. My attention span melts in the heating sun as she begins her annual speech or whatever. Honestly, I'm just hoping to get this over with, we don't have this day off like other districts so I wanna get the whole thing done. _Wait? What if I'm reaped because I'm too sure that I won't be picked._

Then again, I've been doing the reapings for 2 years now and I expected to be picked for all of those. what will change?

Agota comes back up and begins her speech on how District 9 shall be fierce and that she wants us to win the games. I've heard that in the Capitol, when you become an escort, you usually end up with Districts 12, 11, 9 or 6 which do the relative worst in the games. You only get higher up when your district wins multiple times. I feel that this is why Agota wants us to win.

Funny thing, I'm not even paying attention when the female name is picked from the reaping bowl. I'm guessing that's why I jumped so high when I heard the first name picked.

"Botan Sunbul" Agota announces suddenly causing me to jump. For a split second, I feel perfectly relieved before I remember that it's girls before boys in 9. Then I bite my tongue really hard.

The girl known as Botan begins to quietly walk up to the stage. Unlike most of 9, she doesn't have tan skin. Strange huh... Also, her face is a combination of worry, anger, angst, sadness and silence.

Matter of fact, She seems to be around my age (14) which is just terrible luck for anybody. "What a lovely young girl you are. The Capitol will just eat you up." Agota cheers. Botan rolls her eyes before mouthing the words 'kill me'.

"And now for the boys." Agota reaches into the male bowl. By this time, I'm just waiting to see who the District male is. I mean, there is a 1/200+ chance of me being picked and really, it's anybody's luck in this case but it's especially nervousness knowing that even if you aren't picked, some else will be. _We all lose?_ I breath out, awaiting the name of the next tribute when I suddenly notice Stovall giving me a very shocked look.

I'm about to ask what he's worrying about before I notice all the other heads turning at me. _Okay... what nightmare am I-,_

"DAGAN HODAKA!" Agota shouts out into the crowd. Right there... time stops.

My... my name... my... my... my name... I've been picked? How? Why? I... How many slips are... GAH! I'VE BEEN PICKED?!

I begin to panic. RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!

The peacekeepers begin searching around in my absence. I question myself. _Should I flee? Should I go up the stage... and die?_ After what felt like an eternity of thinking, I make my decision.

"Sorry! I'm here!" I shout at the last moment. I quickly wave a sad goodbye to Stovall before running.

For some reason it feels like my feet have a mind of their own and begin propel me up the stage. I know I want to fight back, run through the town and hide, knowing full well of the consequences. _I could hide in the grain, they'd have a hard time catching me..._

I've heard that it happened before. Years ago. But I don't exactly remember all the details.

I stand on the stage with Agota and Botan. Botans brown hair is covers her face and you can tell she isn't really looking forward to dying with another boy her age. Nor does it look like she wants to spend time here.

"What a nice looking young man. We have some good tributes this year." She smiles gleefully at the two of us. I notice a camera not to far away and silently give it the bird.

 _They'll think I'm a rebellious brat. Hopefully this trick isn't... you know, insulting. Nah, it wont. Children watch the games (In which children are brutally murdered) so why would me pointing my middle finger be bad?_

"Shake hands." Agota motions us to shake hands. Both me and Botan hesitate. She gives me a very uncomfortable look and puts her hand out. I do the same and we shake hands. I turn to the crowd and notice Stovall.

Trying to hold in my tears, I give him a nod. Before mouthing the words 'goodbye' to him. He holds in his tears horribly and you can see them slowly sliding down his face.

"Let's give a round of an applause for our tributes." Agota claps. A small appluase from a few in the back. Though, we'd love not to but the peacekeepers get triggered when you don't (Though I've seen them ignore the applause multiple times in 12). The peacekeepers then quickly move us into the justice building as the doors are closed...

* * *

 **Not very long later...**

* * *

Right away, I can tell that things are going to be different for me. I look closely at the furniture and the floor. They're all fancy, like things you see on Capitol television.

The damn Capitol, they look so high tech with that stuff and I've always wondered why we can't have that stuff.

I'm escorted into a dark room where I sit down in the corner. Immediatly, my dad bursts through the room. He's holding a bottle of booze and everything. _This isn't gonna end well..._

I look at him like he brought in a gun or something. "Dad. Really?" I question. "*Hic* You see son. I needed to give you your moms token." He tells me, quickly pulling out a small silver box.

"Here... here box? This is what she..." I look at the silver box. "*Hic* You'll be back. I've seen you kick ass before and *Hic*, you're coming back son." Dad laughs.

"Dad? Are you-" I'm interrupted. "Drinking? No." He yells. "Some *Hic* noice gentleman left it around this morning and I *Hic* had to get the odds in my favor. I also tried to volenteer but the peacekeepers attacked me. *Hic* Damned Capitol. *Hic* Taking away my fame and glory." He yells suddenly.

I look at him with confusion. "Did *Hic* you know you're *Hic*, mother was dead son?" He asks, taking a gulp of booze down. I sigh quietly before lower my head.

"Yes dad. That's why you started drinking..." I remind him.

"*Hic* The odds are not in our favor. Kick the District 2 girls ass when you get to the *Hic* arena." He orders. "Uh... I can't be su-," I begin.

"Want some? It *Hic* seems like the best thing to do. A new tradition!" He says pushing the Booze towards my face.

"Two things dad..." I begin. "One... I'm underage... and two... I'M ABOUT TO FUCKING DIE!" I yell at him. "Well it seems the odds are against you. You be good to the Capitol *Hic*. Also, please tr-," He begins.

For the first time in my life, I'm glad to see the familiar white uniforms take away my dad. However, when they leave and slam the door, I feel my eyes becoming heavy.

"No... no... Why?" I begin crying. The last time I remember crying is when I was 13. Some drunken asshole threw a bottle at my head and injured me. My dad would have told me to quit the job but he was still unstable... because mom...

I roll around on the floor, sobbing like a 11 year old. "I don't want to die... I just... I'm too young!" I say to myself. My life hasn't even started yet.

 _So this is how it is to be reaped? You have this large hole in your stomach and it's your thoughts on the truth_

 _Why? Just why?_

A few minutes later, my best friend, Stovall, comes in. I immediately try and hide my tears by wiping my face but that doesn't stop him from hugging me. "You can't leave!" He tells me.

I stay silent, not emoting at all. He tilts his head thinking about it. "You realize what my parents are like... you've seen them argue and you've seen how they treat me. You're literally all I have." He finds himself close to crying. "

"D-Don't worry Stovall. You're not the one dying." I assure him, trying to stop him from crying. However that only makes me feel even worse as tears begin to stream down my eyes. My sadness turns to frustration as I know that this isn't my fate. I can't die like this!

"I don't have many other friends..." He reminds me.

"Stovall... Don't forget me." I tell him. "I... I won't be able to." He nods his head quietly. We stand our distance from each other for a while before the peacekeepers walk in order him to leave.

Looking at it from here, non of this should be happening right now. _Maybe I'm in bed having a vision of what my future may be. A terrible future where I find myself being reaped._ That's not it. I'd feel it if it was a dream.

Minutes later, a peacekeeper orders me to get up and I'm pushed out the door where the cameras are. Agota moves me and Botan towards the train where all the cameras are. I rub my eyes, making it seem like I haven't been crying much. However, my eyes are still red with salt.

Botans as well. I hear her muttering the sames words. " _Why me? Why me? I'm not good enough..._ " She whispers to herself. _Not good enough?_

Agota glares down at the two of us. "Ugh. You two look so miserable. Lighten up." Agota tells us. Botan looks up at her with rage. "WE'RE ABOUT TO DIE! I'LL LIGHT YOU UP!" She yells at her before glaring down at the floor.

I scratch my head as we begin to get on the train...

* * *

 _ **The Train...**_

* * *

 _I can't believe it. Everything I've known and ever cared about... becoming smaller... and smaller... until it isn't there anymore._

District 9 vanishes under a blink of an eye. I close my eyes and try and forget everything that has been happening. We should be there by tomorrow. I'm not really looking forward to it but I want to get my mind off of District 9 so I stop staring out the window and look around our compartment.

It's clean and fancy, more so than the Justice Building actually. It's ridiculous. Agota leads both me and Botan into a room with a couch, a table and a TV set.

"Hm. Oam, that bitch. Still isn't here..." Agota begins. Me and Botan exchange glances. _Did she just call our mentor a_ _bitch?_

What's weird about me and Botan is that we haven't even said a word yet and we can read each other pretty well.

They way Agota acts makes me think that Oam not being here is a normal thing. Oam was the winner of the 80th annual Hunger Games. Shes been hiding out in her home in the victors village ever since then and it's kind of obvious why.

Agota claps her hands before sitting down on a couch. "Well, so first off. You need to make sure that no one ever forgets you. Considering that this is the 99th Hunger Games, you are likely to be overshadowed by the 100th games" She says.

"So?" Botan glares at her. I groan at the thought of the quarter quell... Every 25 years, we have a Quarter Quell which is something that mixes up some of the rules of the games.

For an example the 25th Hunger Games forced the Districts to vote in their tributes. Most of the tributes were brutal murderers though their were some who were just people picked because of their parents.

The 50th Hunger Games was where twice the amount of participants would be selected meaning 48 tributes. I haven't heard much about the games and from what I recall, they only started allowing reruns of it a few years back. Though they didn't allow it to be shown in District 1, 3, 8 and 12... which is odd since District 12 won that year...

The 75th games had the reuglar reapings... however a family name would be picked and all the children of that family would get thrown into the games No matter how old you were (4 Years - 24 Years actually), you'd be in.

To be fair, I'm glad I wasn't reaped for the 100th games because... well since it's the centenarian it could be flipping torture for all I know...

"Oam is busy... but she's here right now." Agota sighs, leaving the room. "You could help us, you know." I tell her.

"Sorry. I'm an escort and I haven't fought before." She waves. "Well our mentor isn't fond of us so you could actually become a useful human being and... I don't know, help us?!" Botan begins to argue.

"If anything young woman, you should watch your tongue. People like that get turned into Avoxes." Agota glares at Botan. Botan glares back. "I'm all to familiar with it..." She rolls her eyes before turning to the window.

* * *

 _ **Hours later...**_

* * *

Me and Botan still sit away from each on different sides of the car other in silence, wondering about each other. She seems pretty rebellious and she's an asshole to Agota. Hell, she has seems to have even brought up avoxes like they were nothing.

 _She could be dangerous..._

"What's your deal." She finally says. She closes her eyes, feeling embarrassed for speaking to me. "Nothing... just..." I begin. "Yeah, I know." She says, putting her legs to her chest.

We were told that we could go to our rooms before dinner but we both just ignored them. We just couldn't leave...

However, the door suddenly opens and we both look to see who's showed up. A woman in a fairly tight shirt shows up. She's wearing a jacket around her waste and has some pretty battered jeans. "So you're the tributes?" She sighs. Though her eyes are baggy and her skin looks fairly grey, she looks pretty young. From what I remember, she was 15 when she won. _She should 40 now... but she barely looks 17..._

"S-So... Uh... Hope you enjoy your stay in the Capitol... I'll... exist if you want." Oam says, about to leave the through the door. Botan gives me a sideways glance.

However, before she can leave, The Panem anthem plays suddenly and all eyes focus on the Television set.

They begin the replays of the reapings from this year which is just a sign of things to come. Usually this helps other people discover there competition and early betting. Most people don't bet early because you'd have to be straight up stupid, even most Capitol people know better.

I mean just look at the 74th games, most people would probably bet on some of the bigger tributes but the winner was the starving girl from 12. I've always found that funny though considering that she was one of the weaker looking tributes and my dad joked saying that everybody thought that her promise to win the games for her sister was a false promise. Anyhow, it goes like this...

 **District 1**

The girl has a dirty blonde cut and she very cunning and also pretty sexy. People will probably bet on her later. Well, at least the people who aren't smart enough to read my last few bits of dialogue. Even though this, Oam has a kind of "Oh no" look on her face. She's probably done this enough times to know how this goes down. The District 1 male is not as cunning looking but he has a serious look. He's probably having mixed feelings about joining in.

 **District 2**

District 2 is where things get more interesting. The girl from 2 has black hair and is pretty small but has a eager grin on her face meaning that she knows what shes doing. I'm guessing she'll be the one to kill me. It's worth noting that District 9 has a thing for getting killed by District 2. Is it a curse? We'll never know. The male from 2 is a lot taller and looks like a giant. He looks kind of tired which may make people back away but no matter because I already fear him.

 **District 3**

District 3 is nothing much. Though the girl does have a very tearful look on her face. She looks around. The boy is more or less asleep.

 **District 4**

The girl volunteered. She's a career, most likely. She has more or less a mixed reaction to being picked. The boy also volunteers. He has brownish red in his hair but he doesn't smile like the other careers. He has a very grim look on his face and he turns and looks at the girl from 4.

 **District 5**

The girl isn't anything special though. Though the boy who is reaped has a very prepared and ready face. He gives a smile at the camera. _I wonder what his deal is..._

 **District 6**

Almost forgot that 6 existed. [Sorry to people who live there...] The tributes don't look fine. They look like it doesn't matter if they live or not actually. Then again, 6 does have a morphling issue...

 **District 7**

District 7 though... intimidation... Both tributes were volunteers. The boy gives a grin at the camera and lifts his fist into the air as a sign of power. He's gonna be a problem...

The girl is also like this but she doesn't do the power sign. She just nods at the camera and smiles. Oam grits her teeth as she watches the tributes get on the stage.

I roll my eyes as we switch to District 8.

 **District 8**

The commentators reveal that their was a recent disaster in District 8 and they've been trying to recover from that disaster. The towns sqaure looks battered and broken. The tributes aren't anything big though I can tell both of them are holding back tears. One thing I've started to notice are some of the non-volunteers. They all look under the age of 16 or so.

 **District 9 (Us)**

Suddenly comes District 9 and both me and Botan sit up to get a good look. In the replay, Botan seems to be shaking as she walks onto the stage. You can hear whispers from the area she leaves from and even the commentators are confused about her. _They name Sunbul seems to ring a bell in the Capitol..._

I seem to be also pretty dramatic as I make my way up the stage but I'm pretty fine. The commentators comment on how young we both look. Interesting faces this year, they say.

 **District 10**

Nothing really here though... 10 has some strange tributes...

 **District 11**

First off, a 15 year old girl is called up onto the stage. She has a very sorrowful look in her eyes as she makes her way to the stage. She turns to the camera before mouthing the words 'Goodbye' to the camera... Just like I did...

Next, a 12 year olds name is picked and he quietly makes his way to the stage. However, another dark skinned boy runs up to the stage and volunteers in his place. He looks around 18 years old. He hugs the girl on the stage and from what I can see, tells her to watch her back.

 **District 12**

And finally, nothing here in this district... odd...

The broadcast finally ends and we all sit back and think. "Any advice?" She asks. Botan looks at her, offended.

"Aren't you our mentor?" I ask. She gets up and leaves right away. "Great going." Botan slaps me on the back of the head. "Sorry. I just think that we need to know something before we get to the Capitol." I tell her. She gets up and walks to her room. I head to my own room where I jump in my bed and begin thinking about my situation...

 _So is this how it ends? It can't be..._

I want to cry more, but I ran out of tears...

* * *

 **1 hour later...**

* * *

After I get out of the shower, Agota tells me about dinner which will be in 15 minutes. I grab my clothes and get dressed before heading to the dinner cart.

By the time I get to dinner, besides Agota, I'm the only person here.

"Come on. Take a seat." She motions me to sit down. I look at all of the food on the table. Food isn't rare in District 9 but it's considerably hard to come around. I'm just lucky to have a job where I can get enough at all.

When I see the food, I begin putting things on my plate and eating it. Oam and Botan come in a few minutes later and we're all eating at the table, not speaking to each other.

"Any advice for the tributes?" Agota asks. Me, Botan and Oam all look at Agota like she's an idiot. We resume our eating until Botan chimes in. "If you're broken, sorry. But Oam... please give us advice. For us?" She begs our mentor.

Oam begins to say something but she's stuttering very hard to the point she can barely make out a single word. "I-I-I'm waiting for the training. When we get there, I want to see who your up against." She says. I sigh and shake my head.

"Well Ms. Oam, that's very vague. We need to know what to do." Agota argues Oam stays quiet for a few more moments before saying one more thing and leaving.

She sighs before opening her mouth again. "If you're going to do anything... run..." She lays her head down.

Later, dinner ends. However, I'm still thinking of what she said. _Run? From what? The bloodbath? The tributes? Death?_ I'm pretty sure by tomorrow... I'll have a million questions with no answers. However, one still remains...

 _Just why..._

* * *

 _4/13/17. Originally this was done in September but my goodness... I pretty much redid this whole thing by scratch. Hell, I even had time to listen to the entire Mother (Earthbound Zero) and Final Fantasy 1 soundtracks while doing this... damn._

 _Also a lot more cursing than usual in this version. Do you like it? Please tell me._


	3. Chariot Rides

**5-12-17 - Another remaster of the chapter. Very little was changed outside of a few pieces of dialogue that sounded complete trash. Seriously, I wrote some of this stuff?**

* * *

My eyes begin to open as the daylight shines through my room. Though I wake up the to sound of somebody yelling at something else to wake up. I take that as my sign to wake up.

Then my eyes fully open. _I'm on a train. To the Capitol... for the Hunger Games..._ I fall back onto my bed, shocked at everything that had gone down the other day. I was reaped and sent on the train...

I force myself off my bed and leave my room. I walk into the living areas where I see Oam drinking coffee. She looks up before looking back to her coffee. "When will we get to the Capitol?" I ask her. She holds up 3 fingers.

I give her an annoyed look. "Minutes or hours?" I ask. "Does it matter? Minutes." She says taking another sip of coffee."Sure, sure." I sit down as well.

Botan walks into the room after this. She looks more exhausted then I do and she also seems to be wearing her reaping clothing. Agota walks in with a clear scowl on her face. "You, why did you sleep in your reaping outfit? We can't let the audience see you looking like a hick!" She yells, annoyed that my clothes are all wrinkled now.

"Agota will you just shut the hell up and let them do their thing." Oam shouts, not looking up from her book. Agota sighs and heads to next car. Suddenly, we hear a whooshing sound and everything goes black for a few seconds.

"So we're here. The Capitol is past this tunnel so smile for the cameras." Oam tells us, getting out of her chair and leaving. She immediately leaves to the next car, leaving me and Botan alone. I sigh.

"What's up with her?" Botan asks me, rubbing her eyes. I'm about to answer when suddenly the light comes back as we exit the tunnel. We get our first view of the Capitol.

The Capitol skyscrapers reach into the sky like they are trying to reach the moon. I stare out of the window, intimidated by this. Botan also looks out of the window where we go through another tunnel. "Smile." She whispers. I nod silently and smile. The train begins to slow down tremendously as we begin to enter the train station.

When we enter the station, it's already swarming with Capitol people cheering. _Cheering?_ My smile almost turns into a frown when I see these people with their rainbow hair wigs, really unusual sense of fashion and the cheers...

Why do they need to cheer us? We're going to kill a bunch of other children that we don't even know. I find this all so confusing... But that doesn't stop me from keeping my smile.

* * *

I lay on a table... completely nude. Preparing for the reapings are usually one thing. You have all those fancy clothes you have to pick through, take a bath, go up and pray that you're not going on that train to the Capitol...

This is _different_. They strip you completely naked, scrub any dirty parts of your body and then you hope to god that it's over. I've heard that female tributes get all their body hair waxed off. **_All_ _of it..._**

I cringe at the thought of getting all of my body hair waxed off. It sounds pretty painful and you'd probably end up looking like you have scarlet fever or something. Thankfully, it's usually kept for male tributes which is something I'm thankful for because I do not want that. For some odd reason though, they make the female stylists do the males and the male stylists do the females... Just asking why that's so because I find that very perverted.

Anyhow, I spend at least the rest of the morning getting scrubbed. It's about as fun as it sounds. I wish my mind could go completely blank or something but listening to the Capitol people talk about my smell...

"Goodness. They allow you to smell like this all the time in District 9?" The stylist asks, scrubbing my body. _I'm clearly annoyed by everyone right now..._

People in the Capitol "I think we're done here." She announces. I give a big sigh of relief. "You look as bright as the sun now. Wait here until Anat gets here." She walks out the door. I'm going to assume that Anat is my stylist.

Stylists are used for the tribute parade and the interview which are for the sponsors to help choose which tribute they should sponsor. District 9 is never anything special. **NEVER**. The only thing we've ever been have either been grain farmers (Which look suspiciously close to the District 11 tributes) or grain itself ( **Cringe** ).

Its so remarkably stupid how we even do this. We're going to die anyway and looks aren't everything. The interviews matter only slightly because they give off the personality of the tributes. As I continue my in head rant about why the interviews and tribute parades are stupid, someone walks into the room. She looks like a pretty young woman, dark skinned, black hair (Fused with some purple). For the Capitol, she looks pretty chill.

"So, your Daga right?" She asks, pronouncing my name incorrectly. I sigh. "Dagan" I correct her. "I must've misheard it." She smiles. She looks at me close which makes me blush. "Uh... what are you doing?" I ask. She smiles, not answering my question. "I think your build will work very well with the idea I have in mind.." She announces.

"Your not going to make me go completely nude are you?" I sit up. "No. District 12 already did that once. She resigned immediately after that too. Besides, we've already seen enough of you." She smiles, pointing towards my robes. I can't hide the smile forming on my face as I rush to grab my robe. _Where do **these** people hide in the Capitol?_

Before she can even explain her plan, I begin asking her questions. "How many years have you been doing this?" I ask. "This is my 3rd year. I had District 7 last year. I've been doing this since I was 26..." She answers my question.

I grab my room and I'm quickly escorted to the room across. Anat sits me down and hands me coffee... though I'm not really a fan of coffee but I drink it anyways.

She sits across from me and begins explaining the outfits.

"So we have a good plan this year. We're going to modify the grain thing because what's the last District 9 outfit you can remember?" She asks.

I open my mouth to say something but I stop. "Exactly. We're going to fix some of the problems." She laughs. "How exactly?" I ask. "You'll see..." She says.

* * *

 _ **Far later...**_

* * *

I spent the rest of the early afternoon preparing for the chariot rides. "When I can I sit down?" I ask. "It might be a while." One of the designers, Syrio, rolls her eyes as she forces the outfit on me.

Even after I manage to get the costume on, they force a heavy amount of makeup on my face. By the time we finish, I can barely stand up and I'm breathing heavily.

Anat walks into the room and gives a smile. "Picture perfect. Though a little heavy on the makeup, I think we better go and show Abram the outfit." She announces. I'm then escorted out of the stylist room into another room. This is were I meet up with Botan once again. She has a less than happy look her her face, spending oh so many hours trying on outfits.

"Nice costume." She nods. She says it with a sarcastic face and even her tone seems dead, like she's being sarcastic. I look down at hers. Hers looks exactly the same as mine, just a little to tight looking. "I could say the same." I say the exact same way.

Meanwhile, we're distracted by Anat yelling at her assistant. "I told you Abram! I needed it to be slightly less loose than that you idiot!" Anat yells at Abram. It seems as he intentionally gave her a tighter outfit. Not that this is new or anything, I've seen it in our other designs so...

"I thought it looked a lot better and the crowd will love her anyways." He claims. "Whatever. I want this to be perfect and to capture their personality." She smacks him on the head.

She walks over to where we are standing. She smiles again. "The chariot rides are in an hour so I will escort you down to the area it is being held." She waves us over to the door.

We both begin walking over to the door. As the elevator descends, I question Oam. Like, where has she been this entire time? However, Anat begins talking about our outfits as we go down which interrupts my thoughts. "I wanted to use the high winds announced today to my advantage. That's why you'll be going as what you are today." She rubs her hands in excitement.

Both me and Botan turn to each other and gulp. We both don't want to know what's going to happen. Our clothes can fall off for all we know. I look back up to Anat, her smile still beaming. She seems very nice, not very oblivious like other Capitol people. _What's up with her?_

By the time we get to the floor where the chariot rides happen, Districts 1, 2, 4, 5, 8 and 12 are already here. Anat rolls her eyes and decides to give us her ranking of each District outfit. "1 is wearing a bunch of stupid fashion. 2 is going as miners mixed with soldiers. 4 have some generic gods and goddess stuff. Do these people have any original ideas?" She rolls her eyes, turning her head to 5. "5... like what the hell are they going as?"

It looks to be a kind of mecha outfit with sparks flying off of it every few seconds. "8... meh... and finally... 12 with the generic fire element. When will they ever learn that the fire thing got old after the 74th." Anat sighs.

Botan sighs before looking back up to Anat. "Why do we need to know this?" Botan asks her. Anat shakes her head before smiling. "Oh I'm just rambling on about nothing important. Just saying, I want you two to make an impression." Anat puts her hands on her shoulder. It takes a few more minutes for the other Districts to arrive and by that time, the sun seems to be finally going down.

Anat looks back down to us, giving us a determined grin. "Don't forget to smile." She tells us. We both nod. It's practically impossible for me to smile anymore but I oblige and give the biggest smile I can give.

Anat just laughs. "A real smile. A wave too." She suggests. As we get up on our chariots, she gives us a peace sign. Right around then, the anthem plays. She gives us a nod and District 1 begins to exit the doors. I gulp really hard. Botan looks at me and slaps me on the back. "What the heck?" I turn to her. "Keep your head high." She nods.

I smile slowly and raise my head as we burst through the doors. Then when I see the crowd... I nearly have a heart attack. There are so many people that I'm actually more nervous than I was for the reaping. However, instead of breaking down, I smile wider than I did before.

It's also very cold here which makes me shiver a bit. Both me and Botan begin the traditional waving and blowing kisses stuff. The crowd gives an earpiercing scream as we take the stage. I look around. Everything seems so strange, like a dream. That's when I look down and notice what my costume has been doing.

Anat said that our costume would take advantage of the wind and now I see that grain is not only growing from our costume... it's blowing in the wind like wheat. I smile and wave a bit more, praying that this ends even though the costume is pretty cool.

By the time we get to the center of the street, this is when I get my first good look at President Ramia. He is dressed in an all black suit and has a white rose tucked in. Obviously their in memory of his step father, Cornelius Snow, former President of Panem. He seems to have better tastes as far as looks go. His hair is a jet black and it's combed back for the event.

He quiets the crowd slowly and begins the annual speech before each Hunger Games.

"Greetings tributes of the 99th annual Hunger Games. We salute your courage and your sacrifice." He begins. Quietly snorts before rolling her eyes. I roll my eyes in response.

The crowd seems to be cheering again which makes the President calm them down again. "We wish you... a happy Hunger Games and may the odds... be forever in your favor" He bows and then he walks off.

As he walks off, the rest of us all turn to each other. The boy from 5 groans. "Some speech." The boy from 5 says. Practically every person that heard him say that turns their head to him. Our horses then begin to turn themselves around and I get one good look at the crowd. They all seem fired up. They probably got tickets for this event months, maybe even years before.

I wonder what I'd be doing if I lived here. Would I love the games just as they do or would I despise them? I wonder if it's even possible for there to be someone that hates the games in the capitol..

I sigh and when the doors finally close to the tribute center. As our chariots stop, I completely collapse on the floor. "Hey, don't die yet. The games haven't begun." A kid jokes.

I look up and notice the boy from 4 laughing. A bunch of other tributes join in on the laughter. I begin to stand up. He seems to be more confident looking than he was during the reaping.

"Whatever. It'll be surprise if I even make it to the games alive." I joke. "Don't worry, I'll be sure to make sure you make it into the arena. You'll probably be in their for maybe a few seconds before you die." The girl from 1 grins.

My smiles turns to a glare. "It was meant as a self-depreciation joke. Thanks for ruining it." I sigh. _So these are our careers huh... interesting..._

* * *

 **4-12-17: Originally, I didn't have any thoughts on this chapter because of its terrible writing originally but looking at it now, I feel a lot better re-writing it. Anat was a character I underutilized. I think it was because I felt she was a Cinna clone... but I wanted to give her a personality that would stick out.**

 _ **I don't think I was able to but you know...**_

 **Still. She's more prominent in future stories.**


	4. Training

If anything has been proven yesterday... it's that you can impress the Capitol people by doing anything nowadays. People really did like our grain performance last night considering District 9's history of having pretty boring chariot outfits. I find this ridiculous because I mean seriously, it's just grain.

*Sigh* I guess District 9 has spoiled me. Anyways, I sit at the table on the 9th floor of the Tribute center. Everybody should be getting up considering it's the first day of training and besides that, it's 7:00. District 9 continues to spoil me because I always wake up around 6 in order to make the trip to my friends bar. District 9 always has had this drinking problem going around which have hit the District especially hard. At one point, their were public whippings every day because of how little people were working and always being drunk. In all honesty, I'm surprised that having liquor wasn't illegal after that because in all seriousness, the bar seems to make a lot of money. I only make 25% of that money which is for going around and handing out the drinks. Even with the smaller amount of money I get, it's a lot better than having to work in the grain fields in the burning hot sun. Even though I hate the smell, I seem to miss the stench of the bar. I don't even see how that makes any sense. After a few minutes, Oam walks in and sits at the table with me. "Good morning." She lays her head on the table. "Good morning to you." I nod. "Why up so early?" She asks. "I'm used to waking up early." I say. She only nods. I wonder what Oam did before she was reaped in her Hunger Games. Maybe she helped out around her house, worked in the grain fields? She had to do something because she seems to be in a daze while thinking about it.

Soon comes in Botan who seems to be rubbing her eyes. "Why are you all up so early." She stretches as she goes to sit down. "I'm always up early." Botan admits. "Work." I say. "Anyways. We need some advice for training." Botan turns to Oam. She stares at her like she is hiding something. "Okay, fine. You win." Oam sighs. "I'd reccomend training with some survival tools while also trying out some weapons in order to see which one you're best at." She admits. After a long pause, I speak up. "That's it?" I ask. "There isn't much to say in this case." She admits. "Thank you, Oam." I nod. She turns and looks at me and then lays her head on the table. Some Avox's walk in and set up some breakfast. They put down plates of eggs, bacon, pancakes, sausage and all types of other foods for breakfast, some that I've never seen before. Botan thanks the Avox's who slightly nod before leaving. Agota walks in and sits down. "Good morning. It seems that you all happen to be very excited so you woke up before me." She laughs. "I guess you can say that." I scratch my head. I put nearly all the food I see on my plate and Botan does the same. "You two are really eating like you've never seen food before." She watches in horror. "Honestly, I only eat a meal a day." I admit. "I want to be filled up all day." I say. "Well you two don't see the problem do you? You need to have some space for training." She tells us. "You've got a point." Botan admits. I eat some pancakes while Agota continues her speech about not eating to much. After I swallow the last bite of bacon, I speak up. "Okay, okay. We know." I laugh. "You just ate everything on your plate." She looks down at it. "Oh. Well, I couldn't tell because I'm not even full." I stand up, pull in my chair and walk away. "Training starts in an hour." Agota says. "Okay." I walk to my room.

* * *

The elevator descends down to training center. The elevator is probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen in the Capitol because of how it works. I wish we had one of these in District 9. Anyways, we were given clothing made specifically for the training, a brownish red shirt and pants with a number 9 on the back. Like you couldn't tell which District we were from. All the tributes are gathered into the center ofi the place which is where we find the gamemakers who are standing and watching above us. "Greetings tributes of the 99th annual Hunger Games. This is the training area. Before you begin to head to all the stations, we want you to keep this in mind." The head game maker begins. "We do not condone fighting or arguing in the training center, you'll have enough time to do that in the arena. Also, we recommend working with survival tools if you don't work with them in your respective Districts. The training will now begin." He announces. We all move to different stations of the training center. I begin to head to knives as I believe them to be pretty easy. However, I stop myself and turn around when I see the careers jump over their and begin showing off like the jerkoffs they are. The male from 1 seems to be excellent with knives while the girl from 1 seems to be good with the Bow. It's a popular weapon in District 1 for the female tributes. The female from 2 is using a sword that looks almost as big as she is. _Great. I'm going to be killed by someone who can barely position their hands on a sword._ Looking more closely however, she seems to be doing some real damage when training with the sword. The district 2 male is also pretty good with the sword. Honestly, I'm glad it's not an all-around type of career group. Those ones are dangerous. Not to say that these ones look any less intimidating. While I watch them train, I feel someone grab my hand which makes me jump. "Are you going to train or not?" She asks. I nod and begin walking towards the fire section. As I try to burn charcoal on my own (Something that is near impossible for me), I watch the other tributes train. The other 2 careers are using spears which reminds me of Finnick who at this moment is still the youngest tribute the Hunger Games has ever had. _That was 34 years ago..._

He's 48 years old now but still...

I move over to the rope tying station which is way easier for me. Not like we work on these in District 9 but I'm surprisingly good at this. "Hello." A voice says behind me. I jump, only to see the male District 5. "Uh... hello?" I wave. "Workin on ropes?" He asks. "No. I'm burning my hands." say sarcastically tell him. "I have a question?" He asks. I turn to him. He seems to be slightly taller than me. He looks to be around my age. "Are you looking for an alliance?" I ask. "How did you know?" He asks. "Because. Why not?" I facepalm. "Okay yes. It was kind of obvious." He admits. "What's your name?" I ask. "Cleos" He nods. "Dagan." I nod back. "So yeah. I was here to ask if you want to join an alliance or something." He says. "I have to ask my mentor first but either way, I'm not sure." I scratch my head. "Okay then." He nods. "Why do you even want one? Any alliance that are not the Careers tend to break down completely in the first few days, even hours." I say. "Well. I want to get a group of us so we can bring down the careers right away. After that, you can leave if you want." He smiles. "That's completely unrealistic." I tell him.

I walk away towards the knife section while the careers are taking a break. I grab one of them and aim the towards a dummy. I'm not paying any mind to them, but I know for a fact that the careers are watching me while this is happening. I take a deep breath in and then back out. Right then, I throw it towards the dummy... Barely hitting the mid section. "Yes." I whisper to myself. Over at where the careers are standing, they're silently laughing themselves to death at this. I roll my eyes and grab another knife, aiming it again. However before I can start over, a girl pushes me over. "Ow! They said no violence until the actual games." I rub my head. "I know. You're in the way though." She grabs a bundle and lays them next to herself. "You must be District 9." She inspects my shirt. "Obviously." I nod. "District 3." She holds her hand out. She helps me up. "Next time, don't stand in the damn way." She say, grabbing all of her knives and throwing them at another dummy. I look around to see what's going on. The boy from 6 seems to be having a conversation with the boy from 5. Probably about alliance but honestly, the boy from 6 is 12. Both tributes from 7 are literally going axe crazy with the axe.

Soon enough, a lunch break is called and we all sit down for lunch. I sit down by myself and eat. Pretty much everyone eating lunch are sitting by themselves. Well, besides the careers. I also notice something very weird. Both tributes from 7 go to the career table and are talking with them. They seem to be discussing some stuff. They must be talking about joining the Careers. Not surprising because 7 tributes tend to aggressive. However these tributes are more than just aggressive looking...

I notice the careers are shaking slightly in their presence. I'm still watching them talk when suddenly Botan sits down next to me. "Hows it goin?" She asks. "Oh. Well the food is really tasty." I say, eating my sandwich. Suddenly, the boy from 5 walks to our table. "Hey." He announces his presence and sits next to Botan. "Who are you and what do you want?" She asks him. "Alliance." He says. "No." She shakes her head. "Aw." He gets up and leaves. "Best Five second conversation ever." I admit. "I'll say." Botan smiles. We sit together for the rest of our lunch break talking about our District and which station we will be going to next. It's great to talk about something that isn't fashion or our impending doom that awaits us in a few days but were talking like were back in District 9. "Can I ask you something?" Botan looks around. "Sure. What is it?" I ask. "Why is District 5 looking for an alliance?" She asks. "He was trying to make a counter-career group so we could take our the careers." I look at the District 5 male who at the moment is seems to be successfully recruiting the District 11 girl. "That's the stupidest idea in the history of history." Botan argues. "Actually, the stupidest idea in the history of history would have to be the Hunger Games." I say jokingly, though I am serious. "Good point." She smiles. "Well, what is our plan for the actual games?" I ask. "I say we should take Oam's advice and book it." She grinds her teeth. "Yeah but... what if we don't have any survival tools or food? We'll die instantly." I shake my head. "Once again, good point." She nods. We think in silence before I speak up. "Maybe we should pretend to join their alliance so they can share some of their items with us and then we'll book it." I whisper. "Sounds risky..." Botan scratches her chin. "It's the only idea I have really." I lean back in my chair.

Right then, the District 5 male comes back. "Made up your mind?" He asks. "Sure." I nod. "Okay." He nods back, about to leave. "Wait. I'm going to join too." Botan speaks up. "Great. Now we have alliance going." He cheers. "Good god what have we done..." I whisper to Botan. She silently laughs. Immediately after, the peacekeepers announce the end of lunch break and we go back to a station. Me and Botan head over to the weapons station where the careers are kicking dummies around. Show offs. We both walk over to the knife section and throw them at some. I watch my back just to make sure that the District 3 female is not going to shove me over this time...


	5. Scores

I sit at the table, twiddling my thumbs rapidly. Of course I'm worried...

Today is the private training sessions. During private sessions, you some sort of skill you know in front of the peace keepers. Private training usually speeds up the betting process for the games. It worries me to near death because I still have no skills. District 9 has never had any reals skills which is a problem. District 9 usually gets 4's and 5's and if lucky, maybe a 7. It worries me because I need to be careful since this is the moment people begin to heavily sponsor.

I pace back and forth in the training room, awaiting the moment my name is called. They've already run through the first 7 districts and the District 8 males session seems like it's going to come to a close. I sit in the back of the training room with Botan who is also pretty quiet. "What do you think your score is going to be?" Botan looks up.

"I don't think its going to be anything note worthy." I admit. "I think so to." She nods. "We've seemed to get quite closer over the past 2 days alone. Really, I guess you can say its due to our circumstance. We may live or die, we don't know. However, we've predicted our deaths already.

I've barely bothered trying to sleep over the past 2 days after watching some of the other tributes train. After arriving, some of the nightmares I had were too much to take. The first one I had was someone throwing something at me... and I woke up sweating and breathing hard... _A horrible reminder of the 98th Hunger Games..._

The second one was even worse. I ran towards the cornucopia as fast as I could, grabbed a few weapons and a backpack and turned around into a sword from the District 2 girl. I was also stabbed by the other District 2 tributes from the 98th, 97th and 96th Hunger Games. I think that one is pretty easy to uncode...

If anything, District 2 is the District everybody is afraid of because they are the most well fed and the ones with the most insane tributes. From what I've seen, the tributes their WANT to kill and they've been training for that one moment. District 1 and 4 get off a little better because the tributes their usually seem to want to kill just to get out of the games.

It's a horrifying thought to say the least. I've never bothered checking out what Oam had to go threw during her games to make her as broken as she is. She came out better than other victors. Some have to be put in asylums and others... they end up killing themselves. Oam is just quiet, not speaking at all about her games or her family. If she has one at all...

 **"DISTRICT 8 FEMALE!"** They announce the girl from District 8. She gets up and slowly walk to the the private training room. "Geez. You're already next." Botan shakes. "I know. We've ran through most of the District's already." I turn and look towards the kids from the other 3 District's. They seem as worried as I am. District 10 and 11 for some how usually end up with better tributes then us.

When it comes to 12... They usually never get higher than a five. We sit around for a few more minutes as I look up at the digital clock. "I wonder what everybody at home is thinking about." Botan breaks the silence. I look up. She looks like she regretted saying that. I know she doesn't think I'm going to answer that but I choose to.

"They're probably worried sick." I admit. "I'd say. Mom is probably..." Botan stops before she can even. "Yeah." I close my eyes. A few more minutes pass and then I begin to feel exhausted. I wish they did these earlier in the day because I'm tired...

" **DISTRICT 9 MALE!** " They announce. "That's you." Botan looks up. I face her. She gives me a slight smile, and then a nod. I jump up and begin walking to the room. Fear begins to strike my heart. _What am I going to do? Throw knives? They should have a bunch of things that I can use._ I enter the slightly dimmed room and look around. I chew on my tongue a bit before coming to a conclusion. " _I can't do anything..._ " I whisper to myself.

I look up towards the Game Makers who are just standing around... waiting for me to do something. I walk over to an area with a bunch of knives. _Okay... I better not embarrass myself here._ Before I throw the first knife at a dummy... another thing catches my eye... a giant weight...

I may be 14... but I'm still pretty strong, no matter what people say. I slowly move over to it and try to pick it up. I grab it with one hand... and I can pick it up relatively well. You can see that it is pulling my hand down a bit but other than that, I seem to be holding it up far better. I pull it up to my left knee and begin to look to see what I should throw it at.

Turning around, I see some weapons on display. _Hope they don't mind..._ I launch it towards the weapons, knocking the entire thing over. All the game makers look over to me and watch as all the weapons fall off the display. I turn to them. "I apologize for that." I bow. Next, I walk back to the knives section. I grab one and begin aiming it towards the dummy.

 _I better not screw this one up._ I throw it towards the dummy... barely making it inside the red circle on the chest. I look back towards the game makers. Some seem to be nodding in approval. _Maybe I can get a 6 to the very least..._

I don't really know what to do next though so I begin to pace back and forth in the room. _My survival skills would get me a 7... if only they had stuff for that._ I move over towards the knives again. The easiest weapon... and also the hardest. I grab one and look at it. "What am I supposed to do..." I whisper. I NEED to get a good score. If I can't, then people may not sponsor me.

 _And if people don't sponsor me..._

I shake my head and throw the knife towards a wall. I continue to pace a bit before noticing how deep the knife got into the wall. I try to pull it out... but its stuck pretty good. "Damn." I laugh. "Tribute 17, you have 2 minutes left." They announce. "Shit." I grit my teeth. I grab a knife on the table and throw it towards the dummies again, missing it completely.

"Uh..." My eyes open. _I need to do this correctly... for Oam... and Botan..._ I grab a knife and throw it even harder. This one manages to hit the dummy VERY close the the center. "How am I even that good at this?" I whisper to myself. I put all of the stuff down and continue pacing the room until they announce my time.

"We thank you for your time Tribute 17, you are dismissed." They announce. I nod and leave towards the training room. Botan is walks past me with one of the most uncomfortable faces ever. I give her a heads up about the room being kind of... well, messed up. "Good luck." I say. "I can say the same for you too." She smiles. We both nod and head our separate ways.

* * *

Its been a few hours since our private training's and by this time, the final tributes have been scored. Me, Botan, Oam, Agota, Anat and the other stylist, Abram I think his name was. whatever it was, we sit down and wait patiently for the scores to begin. I feel my heart pounding very hard. My score needs to be higher than average to prove my point.

The District 1 boy comes up first. He gets a 9. "Oh damn." Botan speaks up. "Not the highest but its something I'd brag over." Oam admits.

The District 1 girl comes up next with a 7. "Wow... pretty low for a career district." I admit. "What went wrong?" Botan thinks. "Meh..." I sigh.

Both tributes from District 2 get a 10 which is awfully surprising. Nobody says a word.

Districts 3 has lower-average scores while 4 gets higher average scores.

The District 5 male gets a 6 while the female gets a 4.

In District 6, the boy gets a 3 while the girl gets a 4.

District 7 pops up after that. We see the boy from 7 appear... and then a giant 11. "Oh SHIT!" Oam jumps, surprised. "Language!" Agota smacks Oam across the head. The female pops up right after that... another 11... "Holy..." I shout. We haven't had an 11 in 25 years... Katniss Everdeen from District 12 was the last person to actually have an 11.

District 8 pops up. The boy gets a 6 while the girl gets a 7... I'm curious on the reasoning for that. Soon comes 9...

Everybody jumps onto the edge of their seat... waiting for our numbers...

District 9 male... 7... My eyes widen... "Oh... my goodness..." I grin. "A seven?" Anat smiles. Botan comes next... a 9... We all turn our heads to her. "That's not a number we usually see from a District like ours." Oam says. "I know right." I look back at the previous scores. "My score was a 5." Oam says.

District 10 gets their usual scores while 11 has a 4 and an 8. 12 has a 2 and a 6. Then, the Capitol seal shows up and signals the end...

We all sit in silence. "What did you do Botan?" Anat says. "Something that blew their minds." She says. "Okay then... I'm going to bed..." I say, walking to my room.

All that I can think about before I go to bed is my score. 7 is pretty high for the lower districts. I threw a ball and a knife, how is this logical? Maybe they were just tired. I should just rest right now because the day after tomorrow is the interviews and... ugh... I just don't want to think about it...


	6. Interviews

_I brought it back! Yeah, I needed something Hunger Games related to keep my drive up._

* * *

After the private training, I was sure I'd have some time to think about it and just forget about it. However, I have to keep reminding myself that I'm possibly going to die in less than a week. However, that's not my issue. The issue is the interviews. You see, they want us to dress up and talk about ourselves before we die.

The only reason any of the tributes actually care for the event is because it's the only _other_ event in which the tributes are able to go and get some sponsors. Considering how we just _somehow_ did good during the tribute parade, I was hoping I could get around this but they really want to know about us and what we do.

Well. That aside, this whole situation has been very awkward to say the least...

"I don't mean to be rude but you couldn't have made anything more boring for the District 9 tributes honestly." Agota complains to Anat. "This isn't the tribute parade 2.0 Ms. Agota. These tributes need to shine their personalities, not there clothing." Anat sighs.

"Meh. It's nothing much but at least it's not too much." Oam watches with her arms crossed. "So. Is the suit good?" Anat asks me. "Yeah. I think it's comfortable to say the least." I admit.

My suit has a pattern of Silver and Black. This is a reference to the fields of grain from 9... which I miss a lot... Oh, it's also a reference to the chariot outfit first used for District 9 in the 67th Hunger Games. It was used a lot after that and has become pretty much a staple.

I turn around to Botan. She has a dress that pretty much mirrors my suit. Nothing much. However, she seems to like it a lot more than I do. "It looks very pretty." She admits.

"The dress is too big though. You're going to trip over yourself." I joke. She rolls her eyes.

"We... Now we need a good angle." Oam rubs her chin. That's my real problem though. I don't think it's possible to come up with a good angle for this considering how little personality I have. I'm not that confident of a person. I'm not that cunning and besides that, I'm relying on a counter-career group that I barely trust.

* * *

 _ **Many Hours later...**_

* * *

After a few hours of practice...we concluded that I'm a complete and utter snore fest. We ran through a lot of angles and I couldn't even find one that would actually work. I think Botan is having better luck than me but I actually don't know what she's doing... Though from what I can tell, it could be a more mysterious angle. This could hopefully get us some sponsors that like the hidden type of style that she has. Especially with that 9 of hers.

"I hope you guys pull this off..." Oam yawns. "You're not boosting my confidence yawning like that. Botan laughs. "I'm surprised any of us have any confidence. Considering District 9's track record." I scratch my head.

Everyone goes silent. "Why is 9's track record such a big deal? It's not like 9 is cursed or anything." Botan speaks up. "But... We always-," I begin.

"Don't underestimate yourself. You're not your ancestors so stop." Anat argues. "Okay, okay." I sigh.

"We just have to go out their and kick the other tributes." Botan tells me. "But... But I don't want to kill... I..." I begin. "The alliance built by the one from 5-," Oam begins.

"Plutark." Botan interrupts her. "Well his alliance pretty much covers our sponsors." She argues. "And remember what I said." She puts her hand on my shoulder.

"Run." She gives a nod. I've noticed her expression just now. She doesn't seem... out of it anymore. She still is quiet and stuff but she seems more determined to bring us home... Sadly, only one of us can... that or we both die...

* * *

 **Many other hours later...**

* * *

As me and Botan wait in line for the interview with obvious worry in our eyes, the other tributes are sitting around with nothing to do. However, you can hear everyone's heart pounding as we stand up in line. Nobody wants to screw this up. This is my last chance to get sponsors before the games.

You cannot win without sponsors. _Don't tell me it's possible! 99 years of Hunger Games, how many people have survived without them._

I ignore the fact that sponsors only began to pop up around the 14-19th Hunger Games and only became mainstream in the 30th or so. I'm not sure if I've picked up the public eye of the Capitol or not. Seriously. I've never really found myself in any talk about the tributes.

Other than the alliance Plutark built honestly, we haven't been brought up. An anti-career alliance is usually a laughable subject in the games. That's why I think I should have walked away from the offer.

Then again... I wouldn't get any free supplies if I didn't join. I gulp as the girl from 8 jumps onto the stage. Her partner gives her a thumbs up and she gives a confident smile back to him. Botan turns around and looks at me for a few seconds before turning back around.

The girl from 8 is wearing a purple and grey dress. I'm not sure what it's supposed to represent because it is pretty bleak and boring. Her interview begins and she manages to keep herself calm and answers the questions. The Capitol audience laughs at some of the things she says an it's obvious that she's been practicing this one for a while.

The buzzer goes off and the boy from 8 follows up. She jumps off the stage gleefully while the 8 boy gives her a high-five. Botan turns around and gives me a very uncomfortable look. I nod to her. _She's scared..._ _So am I..._

The boy from 8 has a very nice purple and grey suit to match up with his friends dress. It is honestly very well done and I can't say that I don't like it. However, I feel a nauseating feeling as I realize that Botan is next up.

I haven't really found myself paying much attention to the other tributes during the interviews. However, the crippling nausea has my eyes and ears all focused on what the boy from 8 talks about. He talks about his family, home in 8 and other things that even the Capitol don't really feel interested in.

Though from the look of the crowd itself, he could have gotten their attention back but he never did. Soon though, the three minutes come to an end and Botan quietly makes her way up to the stage.

Her dress seems to sparkle even more so when she jumps onto the stage. Caesar Junior, youngest son of Caesar Flickerman who was the past interviewer. Honestly, to the Capitol audience you cannot have Hunger Games without the bastard. I've always wondered if Caesar thought about how stupid the games where, he seems to show some emotion for how stupid it is but he has to do his job.

He greets Botan with a kiss to the hand and they sit down. Botan seems to be a little shaken up but she holds her ground and so the interview begins.

"So miss Botan. The Capitol crowd out here has been curious since last night about something that shocked the entire nation. You know what it is right?" He asks her.

Botan stops smiling and puts on a serious face. "It's my score isn't it?" She jokes. The entire place bursts with laughter. Botan gives a relieved look and turns around to the edge of stage. _She's trying to see if I'm watching._

Though I'm fairly confident that she cannot see me, I give her a nod. "Well anyways Botan. How did you get that score? It is the highest score a tribute from 9 has ever achieved." He asks.

"I would say but... uh..." She thinks. _She doesn't want us to know huh?_ "It's supposed to be kept secret!" I shout from the back prompting Oam to come out of nowhere and slap me across the head.

The interview continues and Botan continues the leave hints to me and her "friendship", the alliance we formed with the counter career group along with our strategy, her score and finally what it's like back home in 9.

From what I can see. She's trying to be very mysterious with the interview. The crowd is split between laughter, silence and being in aw. The crowd just can't get enough of her.

 **"RRRIIINGG!"** That is until time ran out signalling the start of my turn. Botan bows to the crowd before walking off off the stage with a smile. When she gets to me, I give her a high five before she suddenly gives me a hug. "Please do good. We need it." She tells me. She walks off and I step onto the stage.

I swallow my spit as I step onto the stage. Everything seems to freeze into place on the Capitol stage. The Capitol people are all applauding and Caesar Jr. is just motioning me to come on.

I take in a deep breath. _This is for us..._

As I take my seat and smile, I wonder what questions I'll be asked. Maybe I can come up with something along the way. It can take care of my situation...

"Dagan. I've been curious about your. You and Botan have both gained the interest of the Capitol people." He asks me. My eyes turn from him to the people before quickly turning back.

I'm nervous... Very nervous. _Come on Dagan! Shake it off! You got this!_ "Even I'm curious. I didn't expect to get that seven." I admit, smiling a bit. Ceaser laughs before giving me a grin.

"This year seems to be a change of pace for District 9, mostly one of the forgotten bottom Districts." He tells me. _UGH. I hate this shit._ District 9 - 12 are the forgotten bottom Districts obviously. However, the Capitol usually seem to place bets on these 4 districts to see which one will be wiped out last or first. A cheaper alternative to seeing who would win the games.

In our case. District 12 and 9 are usually the ones people believe will be wiped out the quickest... This doesn't help of the tributes confidence nor does it help the confidence of their parents who are usually crying themselves to sleep.

I gulp a bit before Ceaser continues. "District 9 has had some new things come up. For one, the tributes scored pretty big scores. Second off, those chariots were very well done." He admits.

"I liked them. Though Botans could have been a little less... uh... -," I begin. "Cute." Ceaser grins. The crowd laughs and I turn red. That makes me think a little. I actually did find myself staring a bit...

 _Not now Dagan! You're doing an interview!_ "You both seem to work together. Though we aren't allowed to give too many details on the training you all did, I'll admit, I've heard rumors of you two working hard together." He explains.

The whole crowd goes silent with a few people giving some 'oohs'.

I turn back to the crowd and give a kind of glance. "So does that mean you all ship us or something?" I ask the crowd. They instantly jump back into laughter.

 _That was actually the worst one I had..._

I keep on trying my hardest to keep the crowd interested in me while also throwing in a joke or two. I know that my time is almost up when Ceaser asks me about my odds of winning.

"I... I hate to be cocky... but I think I stole all of the odds." I say proud and strong. The whole crowd stands up and applauds me before the timer rings and I bow and jump off the stage.

I feel very relieved now that all that is over but I can't feel like I just messed up. As the rest of the tributes wrap up their interviews and I head to the elevator, Botan sneaks up on me.

"What the hell were you trying to imply Dagan?" She ask me suddenly. I turn around and question her. "What do you mean by imply?" I ask.

She glares before I suddenly get the reason. "OH! No actually. I'm not saying we're more than friends. They just assumed that because we've been getting along better than the other tributes." I admit.

She sighs and presses the buttons on the elevator. "You've got a good point... But I still don't understand..." She shakes her head. Before our elevator can lift us up though, the two tributes from 7 jump onto our elevator.

Me and Botan both avoid eye contact... not like that would matter in the long run since they're both a whole foot taller than us. They look down at us and the male tribute grins.

"So... you two are apart of the 'anti' career alliance?" The male asks. I look up. "Uh... In a sense. We're only using them to get supplies in actuality." Botan admits, not even looking at them.

"Oh. Well since you still are associated with them, I guess we can kill you off in the bloodbath as well. Just a warning, the girl from 1 has her eyes on both of you for scoring higher than her. The boy from 1 as well." They admit.

Kind of random that they tell us their plan to kill us. "Oh really now?" Botan looks up, now grinning. _Grinning? GRINNING OF ALL THINGS!_

"You'll have to think like the tributes from 3 if you want to kill us." She smiles. "And why's that?" The boy from 7 asks.

"Because let me say that our strategy is pretty... *Ahem* unique." The elevator stops and we reach the District 9 floor. "Catch you later." The girl from 7 waves. We both ignore them before heading to our separate rooms.

"Hey... Uh... Dagan?" Botan speaks up. "Yeah?" I ask.

"At the interviews... you asked the viewers if they shipped us right?" She asks. I breath in and answer with yes. "Do... do you have feelings for me?" She asks.

I blush. _Why does it matter?! This isn't how a relationship is supposed to work and we're both probably going to be dead before long! AGH! I hate shipping!_

"M-Maybe?" I cough. "Well... thanks. I wanted something to keep me comforted before tomorrow when... well, you know." She blushes as well.

She smiles. "Well, I guess I'll see you later..." She rushes to her room.

I look around the dark room. District 9's room. Many tributes... dead tributes... slept here. What were there last days like? I can imagine that they were filled with tears... lots of them...

I shudder. _Why would I want to think about dying at a time like this. Come on Dagan, just scoot to bed..._

I enter my room where I shut the door and lay my head down on the pillow under me. _What will the arena be like..._ last year, it was a swamp. Terrible memories come from last year...

 _This year, I need to be prepared though..._ I think to myself before slowly drifting off into my world of dreams... the only place where I feel free...

* * *

 _Yay! So I brought this series back. I stopped doing it because it stopped feeling dreadful (Since the characters would all possibly be dead before long) and more upbeat and comedic (Which is the style of a lot of my other fanfictions). Later on, I needed to put my full attention to Dragon Ball Zero and Dragon Ball Alpha and then I lost my hunger games drive._

 _Recently though, I've been re-reading and I found interest in continuing this. Can't wait for the next chapters. The games are next..._

 _Also, can you review? I really want to hear your thoughts._


	7. Tears

I feel groggy when I wake up in the morning time. It feels like those cold winter days in 9. I never wanted to get up. Unless I had school, I needed to drag myself through the floor to get myself awake. I want to lay my head back down today... but I feel... I feel at unease.

That doesn't stop me from getting up and rubbing my head. I have a headache… though I can't exactly remember. I recall we were up last night for interviews. Right… then there were the games… which is today.

My pulse accelerates. Oh… Right… The games begin today. Though they begin around noon and it happens to be 7 in the morning. I think I got pretty use to Capitol time ever since the other few training days but I wish I had been around a little earlier.

I drag myself out of my bed and into the kitchen. An Avox already stands ready to serve. I ignore it and head to the table to see if Oam is up. I walk to the table and notice her on the table. She seems quiet, exhausted and very… nervous.

"Hello… Dagan." She looks up. She doesn't sound enthusiastic or anything. She seems like she just woke up.

"You okay?" I ask, sitting down at the table. "I'm okay. You could say that." She puts her head back onto the table.

For a while, we just sit down and wait in silence before Botan and Agota come down. Botan comes in first. "Hey everyone." She yawns.

"You two should get the clothes you need first. If anything, you can be early that way." She tells us. Agota also comes down later and questions Oam.

"You seemed fine a few days ago? What's up?" She asks Oam. Oam roll her eyes again.

The avox's rush into the room and begin serving breakfast. They have pancakes again, my favorite, but I don't really have an appetite. Though, Botan still does.

She doesn't bother asking why we're not eating though. She just watches us aimlessly. I think for some time about what has led up to this point.

What would dad say about this. I'm sitting in a room with a bunch of people I don't even know and to add to this, I'm in a group with people that I don't even think I can trust.

Oam looks up and then notices the time on the clock. It's about 8AM. Not exactly time but she shakes. Then I understand. She doesn't want to interact with us anymore because she's afraid of what will happen when she loses both of us.

It makes me shutter. _Losing both of us…_

I shake my head. I recall the dinner on the train ride. Oams word of advice: run. Run away from the initial bloodbath at the cornucopia. The others will hopefully be able to get supplies and hand them to us.

We were told to meet up a few meters east of the tail of the cornucopia. I feel a little nauseated. If the others don't survive… well… then we have nothing to live off of…

Worry. I'm worried. I can't shake off the feeling of anxiety. I'm afraid because… well… I'm probably going to die.

I hate the fact that I'm using it so casually. My stomach feels like it's twisting in knots. I have a slim amount of confidence with my score, the chariot parade got some sponsors and I also have the alliance.

However, my age and District 9s track record are holding me back. _I don't want to die..._

* * *

 ** _A few minutes later_**

* * *

I change into a a short sleeved shirt, the one that they assign you before the games. After I put on my arena gear (65% of it. You get the rest before entering the stock yar-, I mean launch room), I lay my head on my bed with a sick feeling in my chest.

Suddenly, Botan enters the room. She has a puzzled look on her eyes. I look up. "Hi." I wave, keeping a neutral face.

"So... you remember the plan." She asks me. I look up at her. She seems on my level of fear. "Yeah." I nod. We both pause for a while, both taking in each others company.

"What're you going to miss the most about the Capitol." She speaks up. I think for a moment. "Anat." I say. She smiles. "Same here."

We both laugh and sit around on my bed. After a few more minutes, Oam comes in and calls us out. We both leave the the District 9 floor and enter the elevator once again.

Oam looks at the two of us. She turns around to the wall before everyone else gets on the elevator. As the elevator drops down to the 1st level, Agota gives both me and Botan.

"You two better put on a show. I can't thank you two enough because you are both such good tributes." She hugs us. Botan rolls her eyes but I give a nod. I feel a lump in my throat. I can barely speak right now.

Agota waves back at us as we are all escorted to a hovercraft outside. Oam departs with us and both me and Botan sit next to each other. Even through the dimmed lighting, I can see who is nearby. The District 1, 3, 5, 7 and 11 tributes are all here. The District 1 female is giving us the middle finger. Her District partner sighs in response. "So immature." Rena, the girl from 11 says.

The boy from 11 (Coba) he gives an amused nod. The District 3 Female comes close to tearing up but her District partner gives her a goofy smile and squeezes her hand. The leader of our alliance pack (Plutark, District 5 Male) is hyper ventilating... some confidence right there. His District partner seems unemotional. Partially asleep in fact. Botan is laying her head back. A women walks up to us. She holds out a needle and jabs Botans arm with it. Her tracker. Botan gives me a look as she gets it. She puts her left hand on my arm. It doesn't seem like a [ _This tracker or whatever hurts]_ face. Instead, it seems more of a _[Are these really our final moments?]_ face. My mouth is dry but I still manage to swallow the small amount of saliva gathered in my mouth as I get my tracker.

I flinch but I manage to keep myself down as they put the tracker in my arm. I look over to Botan who seems half alive by this point. Her face isn't as fearful as it was before... but the look she gives Plutark says otherwise...

Then, the lights of the aircraft turn off and we're left in pitch black darkness as we begin flying towards the arena...

* * *

 **Much Later...**

* * *

Three peacekeepers accompany me to the stock yar-, launch room. Not to be meta or anything but the launch room is where the tributes head before the games. Though in the upper districts, we call them the stock yard because that's where animals go to get slaughters. In this case, us.

 _I'm not an animal though! I'm not a tribute either! I'm Dagan! I'll let you all know that today!_

The peacekeepers open up the door to my launch room where Oam is already sitting on the couch... waiting...

"Hello again." She opens her eyes. "Oam? I-I didn't realize you'd be here to watch me depart." My eyes widen.

"I know. I'm not even supposed to be here right now but... I just wanted you to know a few things." She stands up from the couch. "I've been a victor for 17 years." She sighs, closing her eyes.

She turns around to the pod. "For 17 years I've roamed District 9 aimlessly. I never knew how it felt to... to have... hope." She breathes out. "Hope?" I ask.

"Yes. It's been a years since Koras died of alcohol poisoning. I've had no one to relate to since then... well, maybe Katniss counts but I only see her once a year. Either way it happens during the games which is the worse time of the year." She breathes in.

 **"15 minutes until launch"** Someone announces.

"I've done everything in my power to make sure you've been prepared for the games. I'll admit... you and Botan were my first success stories." I notice that she's starting to hold in tears.

"Success stories? It was just luck that I happen to be where I am right now. With a 7. With an alliance. You know." I tell her. "YEAH BUT I'VE NEVER SEEN A SINGLE CHILD COME HOME SINCE I WAS FORCED IN!" She yells at me.

After a few moments, she begins crying. "Oh..." I lower my head. "I tried to stay away from you two. Just like I'd done the others. I didn't want to interact with you. The more I knew about you, the worse it would sting to see you in the sky at night..." She cries.

I stand silent. "The more it stung, the more President Kuma would be able to use me. The more fear he'd drug me with." She drops to her knees. I get on my knees and try and comfort her.

"I... I'll win... I'll win for you." I tell her. "I know I subverted you last night for talking about District 9 and its track record... but there's a slim chance of you surviving today." She stops crying and now she is reduced to slow gasps and sobs.

At this rate, I feel like breaking down as well. "I... want to say thank you though." She wipes her tears. She stands up.

"I want you to go in there... and survive for as long as you can." She hugs me. "But... But I ca-," I begin.

"Remember the plan!" She cries. I step back before thinking.

"Run." She nods. "I'll run. I'll run as fast as my legs can carry me!" I nod in agreement. "You better. I'm not saying you'll return home but you'll fight with that intent. If you fail... fail as yourself, not as just another pawn in some shitty Capitol propaganda!" She orders me.

"Yes ma'am." I nod.

 **"3 Minutes until launch"** They announce again. I look over. I didn't realize how much time had passed. I look around and find the District 9 jacket. Bottle green... It kind of reminds me of back at home when me and Stovall helped out at the bar... everything felt greenish to me.

Before I can step into the pod though... Oam gives me a hug. "Thank you." She cries. I can barely muster out a your welcome before stepping into the pod. After a few seconds, the pod then encloses on me and I slowly start to get lifted into the arena.

 _Hopefully nobody throws a shoe at me..._

I'm left in pitch black darkness for a few seconds before the pod ceiling opens and I notice how I'm being lifted into a cloudy arena... My pulse accelerates once again. _What type of arena is it?_

However, I feel a piercing cold before I even reach the top. _Snow... Is it snowing?_

By the time the pod lifts us all into the arena, I officially know where we are. A cold... cold tundra...

I look at my surroundings. A white sheet of snow already lays on the grass. Artificial snow also falls from the sky. For those who plan on getting to the cornucopia... it'd be hell trying to get in and out. I know from snowy experiences in 9 that snow isn't anything to take lightly. However, I ignore it and look for my alliance. The District 1 female and District 12 male stand to my left and right.

I look over to Botan who is currently near the left-side edge of the tribute ring. We both said we were going to run away from the bloodbath... but she has her eyes focused on the supplies at the bloodbath. She notices my gaze and gives me a nod.

 **"Tributes! Just a reminder, if you throw any foreign object before the 60 minute countdown ends, only you will be killed. Let the 99th Annual Hunger Games begin... and may the odds be forever... in your favor."** The announcers voice booms across the arena.

I lick my lips.

There are trees stretching as far as the eyes can see. _How am I going to find my alliance in there? From what I recall, it was the boy from 5, 6 and 8 while we also had the girl from 11. Hopefully it won't be too hard to find them._

Thankfully, I'm at the edge of the cornucopia so I don't have to run behind the cornucopia to get south of the tail. I just need to do a zig zag.

I look at my surroundings again. There are giant mountains in the background behind those trees. I wonder if we can reach those...

The current situation with the snow makes me think twice though. The last time we had a snowy arena... the games lasted a total of 5 days and everybody pretty much froze to death. _What are they trying to pull with this one..._

I look back up and realize I only have 15 seconds left before we run off. I remind myself to run away from the cornucopia and in doing so... I turn and look at Botan. She catches my glance and gives me a double nod and mouths the words "I'm sorry".

Before I can even question what she meant, I notice the amount of time. 5 seconds...

I focus my mind on running away once again. In 5 seconds... the world will fall apart... How quickly can I escape this world...

* * *

 _Okay so I completed this rather quickly. If any of you people were expecting the games this chapter, sorry. I had to build up on the games before getting to it. The next chapter will dive deeper._

 **District7axemurder -** _Oh my goodness... PEOPLE READ THIS STORY!? Lol, I'm glad someone's reading this. Outside of the careers (And 7), I'm pretty sure everyone would be rooting for either Dagan or Botan. Most definitely. I'm glad you brought up the different color jackets. Though it would be very useless in this fanfiction, it was nice to add a little detail from the movie._

 _Anyways. I'll get to work on the next chapter soon! See you all later!_


	8. Day 1 - The Arena

I realize something... Botan said sorry... because she's running to grab something... no...

 **"GOOOONG!"** The gong rings and we all sprint towards the cornucopia. Without thinking, I head towards a bag that was right in front of me. _Forgive me Oam... I'll get out as fast as I can._

I look around to make sure Botan survives. However, I don't see her among the growing chaos. _Oh no! W-where is she?!_

Before I can even think, I'm pushed to the ground by another tribute. _I got careless! No!_ In actuality though, the boy from 3 was just pushing me out of the way to grab supplies.

He turns around and looks at me before grabbing some bread and heading into the cornucopia. The girl from 1 also enters the cornucopia but she happens to be armed unlike the boy.

I get to my feet and snatch a backpack off the ground. I aim to run past the cornucopia (The tail is on the other side and we go south from there) and begin spiriting as hard as my legs can carry me. I shake my head as the thought of Botan just dying because of my abandonment.

I charge through the snow when suddenly... **"SLIP"** I trip over deep snow and faceplant into the snow. I feel like I busted my lip slightly but my real concern is that the gamemakers just made me easy target. I struggle to get to my feet and wipe the snow off of my face. The freezing cold snow hangs onto my jacket like arrows piercing through my chest. It's cold as hell right here.

I begin to shuffle to my feet when I notice the District 4 boy charging behind me with an spear. _SHIT! DODGE!_ I get to my feet just as he throws it.

Panicked, I drop back into the snow head first and evade the spear. I feel the cold snow prickling my body once again and I begin to get up and wipe the snow from my face again. I look up and notice the spear. It landed up ahead... in the direction I'm supposed to be running in. I start charging towards the spear which is now just laying in the snow.

The boy from 4 [Aggravated] begins charging towards the spear as well. Since I'm ahead of him, I pick up the spear and start running from the cornucopia. The boy from 4 snaps his fingers as I get away and I turn around to make sure that nobody plans to follow me any time soon. However, I notice the girl from 1 running out of the cornucopia with a sickle in hand. _Reminder: She's still pissed because I scored higher than her._

By this point, I'm already to far to be hit so instead of rushing over here, she throws it at my head. It speeds through the air like a bullet. It takes some time to realize that it's actually going to hit and I just barely dodge it. It slams into a tree behind me. I jump through the trees and grab the sickle. I turn around and taunt the two with both of my newly acquired weapons.

However... I know I shouldn't have done that... because I watch in horror as the boy from 6 has his throat cut clean by the boy from 2...

I turn around and begin running through the woods; shaken by what I just saw...

As I enter the woods, I can still hear the screams and calls for help coming from the cornucopia. My chill bumps grow like grain. I feel cold all over. I also feel kind of tired but I think that was the combination of both the running distance and also what I just saw.

* * *

 **A little while later...**

* * *

My feet crunch in the snow as I slowly walk through. I've seen winter enough in 9 to know that I've got this arenas number. My confidence feels a little lower after the interaction with Oam but I hope I can win.

As I look up at the snowfall, I think about my alliance. The bloodbath has probably already concluded by now and so maybe some cameras are on me as I traverse through the snow. Can't be completely sure though. I don't want to be seen in any moment of despair early on in the games. I probably have some people backing me but I can't be sure yet.

I think about my current circumstances. I have a weapon. This... this very stupid spear that I don't know how to use. I guess its length gives me an advantage but I don't think it would be useful against someone like the ones from 2.

Also, I can't throw this thing at all. I mean, I'm sure I can't aim it. As I walk through the snow though... I begin hearing other sounds coming from the forest. I stop moving an focus my ears on the direction of the sound.

I hear crunching snow somewhere to my right and I begin turning in that direction. I hold out my spear and squint in that direction. The snow seems to be blocking my vision and I hope this isn't some sort of illusion. I don't want to kill anyone but I need to make sure this person doesn't plan on killing me first.

"Dagan. Dagan, it's me!" Botan comes running out of the forest to my shock. I fall over into the snow and she trips over me, faceplanting into the snow as well.

"Sorry..." I say, getting up. "Ugh. That was just dumb of you." She glares. I give a confused look. "What do you mean?" I ask.

She begins to stand up and wipe all of the snow off of her coat. "You ran towards the bloodbath when it was clear that neither of us were supposed to." She glares. "I noticed that you were going to do it as well." I tell her.

She just pauses and rolls her eyes. "Yes, I may have been planning on going in but that bag was right in front of me. No kidding." She tells me. "Oh really now?" I argue.

"Yes. All the other bags were around 15 - 20 meters out there while this one was barely over 7 meters." She explains. She opens it up and my heart stops at the items in the bag.

"Out of all things, A SWORD... A SWORD IS IN HERE! This is fate right here." She announces. "You've gotta be kidding me. Are you saying that the game makers are... you know, rooting for you specifically?" I question her.

Even I'll say it. That is not possible and isn't happening right now but still, why would they do that for specifically us? Somebody must have drunken way to much back at the Game Makers HQ...

We both sit around in the forest... waiting as time passes and for our alliance to all show up. However, we do it with no such luck. As this is happening, me and Botan are annually sneaking glances at each other. I feel regret in my chest.

I actually admitted that I may have some romantic feelings for her. However, that isn't how love works. If I knew her from years before or something, maybe. We just met each other at the reapings. I barely know anything about her...

 _Though the feeling of love does give me a comforting feeling on my insides... Meh!_

I look up at the sky. It isn't dark yet but it's getting there. The sky is grey and gloomy while the snow falls slowly. I sigh as the drops of snow fall and melt on my face. I'm already tired of this. However, I remind myself that this the Hunger Games and I need all of my senses ready for anything.

"You'd think those damn fools would be here by now." Botan grits her teeth while looking to her side. I look at her. She is clearly aggravated by this and almost like this has happened to her a lot.

"I know right." I look around as well. A sudden though enters my head and I drag that though myself across the floor trying not to speak it. However, I conclude that it's for the best.

"You don't think they all died in there?" I ask Botan. She looks at me. "Maybe." She turns around rather coldly. "The boy from 6 died." I tell her.

She doesn't respond. Not even a sad or shocked look forms on her face. She doesn't even seem to care. I roll my eyes and begin awaiting anybody. As time passes, the sky gets darker and we await the anthem to see who died on the first day.

However, just as that's about to happen, I see a dark red figure run straight past us. However, it stops before turning around and slowly walking through the bushes. I grab out my sickle and point it in its direction.

"Hey! It's me." Only for the boy from 8 to push through the bushes. "Oh. Hey 8." I put my sickle back in my backpack. Botan stands up, confused by the sudden appearance of the boy.

"I was with Plutark but he was being chased by the careers so he told me we needed to split up. For survivals sake." He tells us. "Oh really now. That's nice of him." Botan admits.

I look around, making sure nobody is watching us. "We lost Zippah (District 6 boy) and Cernia (District 8 girl). "What? How did we loose Cernia?" Botan asks. I think she was in the cornucopia when she and the boy from 3 were attacked by the girl from 1. She had a sickle.

"Oh. Right. I saw the boy from 3 go in their." I admit, looking at my sickle. Just then, the anthem plays and we all look up in the sky.

 **District 5 Female -** I gut. The first 4 districts all managed to survive on the first day. Nothing too shocking but still...

 **District 6 male -** We all knew he was dead but it was still gut wrenching to know the young boy was nothing more than a dead body in a wooden box now.

 **District 6 female**

 **District 8 Female**

 **District 10 male**

 **District 10 female**

 **District 12 female**

My head lowers. That's a very small amount of tributes. Obviously the snow made it harder to catch some of the tributes but only 7 means that we have more people to look out for...

"Well. I guess we should go and rest." The 8 boy sighs. "We don't trust you." Botan speaks up. We both turn to her. She glares at the boy from 8. Of course, she doesn't trust many of our alliance members. I got to meet most of them during training but Botan mostly avoided them.

"Why are the careers so keen on taking out Plutark?" She asks. "I think the little girl from 13 has a tracking device that helps the find tributes. She joined the careers and agreed to take out our alliance." He explains.

"Wait what!?" I jump. "Why didn't you tell us that right away. They could be right behind us for all we know." Botan grips the 8 boys jacket.

"In fact... we actually are right now..." A very small and childish voice rings out from behind us... The three of us slowly turn around and see the the District 1 tributes ,the boy from 4 tribute along with the girl from 3.

"Remember what Oam said... run..." She grins at us.

"You heard the girl..." The 8 boy books it. Me and Botan both grab our backpacks and run through the woods. The snow crunching beneath our feet. The sound of footsteps echos across the woods but the sound of my heart beating is most definitely louder.

 _I'm going to die! I'm going to die! We're going to die!_ I jump through some of the shrubs as the thought repeats. _No! Shut up! We're not dying yet!_ We have to continu-,

"Look out!" The boy from 8 shouts. Before I can even respond, I trip and suddenly my jacket is soaked. I open my eyes and notice that I just fell into a stream.

"Clissa. Use you're bow." Someone says to Clissa, the girl from 1 I assume. I try swimming towards the other shore but I can't even move. _The stream current. The gamemakers are controlling it so I don't move! Botan! Plutark! ANYONE! PLEASE!_

I cough as water keeps getting shoved down my lungs. I open my right eye in the midst of this and watch as the girl from 1 aims her bow at my skull. Her red jacket shines through the moon. I grit my teeth. _I hope dads drunk during this one... he's not going to like the sight of this..._

I close my eyes again and hope await my doom. I suddenly hear a scream and the sounds of splashing. I open my eyes up once again before I get hit in the head with a stick. "GRAB ON! QUICKLY! WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME!" Someone shouts.

Against all odds, I grab the stick and pull myself to the shore. When I reach the shore, I cough up water and my eyes burn with water. I rub them out before looking up to see who saved me. Plutark... the boy from 5...

"Plutark? How did you get here?" I ask. "You know, I heard some stuff." He admits. "I'm at least glad you arrived to save my ass. But still, where is Rena (District 11 female) and Coba(District 11 male)?" I ask, shaking.

"Don't worry. They'll be here soon." He looks around. I catch his eye and notice that Botan and the boy from 8 are in the trees, watching us. "Are we safe?" Botan asks.

"Hopefully. There were only 3 actual careers. The other District 2 tributes and the girl from 4 were busy chasing after the other ones and the 7 tributes were on guard I assume." He explains.

"We're at least glad that you showed your damn face for once." Botan gets down from the tree. "Nice to meet you as well." He smiles.

"So... what do we do next?" The boy from 8 shows up. "I don't know actually. Maybe we should wait at night to see if they return." He turns to the careers who are desperetly trying to get themselves out of the water and to shore.

"I'd say we run up north of the stream. They'll try and get us later at night." I admit. "That's obviously what we're doing. Come on." He starts running. We all follow.

 _Pretty bad for the first day but I'll take it... I might be dead tomorrow, who knows..._

* * *

The games have now begun and what a messed up day it has been. Dagan comes out with a busted lip, a backpack full of (Something. Haven't had time to check it), a spear and a sickle... damn that's a lot of good stuff.

We also learn that the girl from 3 has aligned herself with the careers. which gives them a 9 man advantage. This is probably one of the most messed up Hunger Games in history considering that we only have 4 tributes that are not in alliances but all well...

 **District7axemurder -** _I did briefly use your idea when Dagan mentions his jacket is bottle green. It isn't really anything big so it wouldn't be mentioned much but it's in here (And it was going to be used anyways). Also, while it does give the warmer districts a disadvantage, it won't be as bad as the Hunger Games that everyone died by cold in._

I'll see you next time!


	9. Day 2 - Red

I open my eyes before noticing a very cold feeling all over. That's when I notice that I'm in a snowy forest. _Oh right... Hunger Games._ I begin to lay upwards when I notice my alliance around me. _Oh shit! Hunger Games._

I back up into a tree and remind myself that we're currently safe. Most likely... I hope so. I can't say for sure but I think I'm fine right now. I look down at my backpack. I grab it and zip up the zipper. I never really got to see what was inside but looking at it now, I remind myself that I put my sickle inside it.

However, I also had a spear and it isn't next to my backpack it was the other da-, I look up and notice Botan scrapping the spear with her sword.

"You're up early." She looks up, with clear unenthusiasm in her voice. "Reminder, we're both from 9. Why else do you think I'm up early?" I ask her. "I'm still on guard duty since everyone else fell asleep." She groans.

"I can see that Botan. Can I have my spear back?" I ask. "Sorry Dagan but you ain't using it. I know for a fact that you won't know how to use." She grows a smile.

I smile back. "Oh really now?" I smile. However, she still doesn't hand it back to me. Right around then, the District 8 boy (Weave) starts to wake up and laugh.

"Me and Botan agreed that I needed a weapon so I'm going to borrow it from you." He laughs. I turn around to Botan who's giving me a nod before she hands Weave the spear.

"You trust him with the spear more than you trust me with it? Why?" I ask. "No. Just everyone needs a weapon. Plutark has some throwing knives. I have a sword. You have a sickle and a spear. What does Weave have?" She tells me. I think about it for a second before giving a nod.

 _Still though, I kind of don't want to use close combat..._

Suddenly though, Plutark comes through the bushes with a smile on his face. "I think I found the rest." He tells us.

Me and Botan turn to each other before looking back up. "Really now..." Weave stands up. "Come on. We don't have much time. Rena has probably one of the worst injuries out of all of us." He runs back through the bushes.

We all grab our stuff before jumping though the bushes. Looking back on the first day, Botan got out with literally no injuries. I got a bruised lip from falling in the snow and I also scrapped myself when I fell into the stream. Weave... oh boy... he got a cut to the hand that probably would have killed him if Botan didn't have bandages with her.

As we walk through the snow, I notice an absence of it. There's still snow on the ground, for sure. However, the snow in the sky has stopped falling and we're left with just a frozen ground. _What game are the gamemakers playing now?_

I swallow my saliva before walking through some bushes.

"OUCH! What the mess." Botan shouts. We all jump back before I rush to Botan. "You okay?" I ask.

"Yeah... just got pricked. These bushes better not have poison in them." Botan looks down at her hand. I look up at the sky. "Don't give the gamemakers any ideas." I tell her.

We continue walking for about another minute until we find Rena and Coba who are resting under some trees. Coba is laying on a tree with minor injuries while Rena has a bloody gash running down her face. Me and Botan both run to her aid.

"What the hell happened to her?" I look up to ask Coba. Right then Plutark comes in a kneels right next to me. "The District 7 girl did it. Axe to the head." He closes his eyes.

I look back up at her wound. You'd think an axe to the head would have gotten to her skull but it seems to have cut short. "She's lucky. I told her not to go to far." Coba admits.

"I needed something.., I needed that backpack." Rena tells us in a whisper. Coba rolls his eyes and stares her in the eyes. "Tell that to your mother." He rolls his eyes. They both seem like siblings. Coba is 18 years old and he volunteered in the place of his brother. Coincidentally, he and Rena both know each other. Rena is 15 years old and she has very dark skin, dark eyes and black hair.

"Here." Botan takes out a bandage from her backpack and puts it on Rena's bruise. "That ain't gonna do much for her." Coba lowers his head.

"I'm fine. I'll live. I just made a small mistake but that don't mean anything because you're here." Rena manages to pull off a smile. Coba closes his eyes. "You'll hopefully be good by tomorrow." He smiles back.

I give a nod and we all begin to sit around them. "I wonder. If you both are going to be sitting around like that, how are we going to get food?" I ask. "And what if the careers come back?" Weave asks as well.

"I'd fight'em all off. I grew up working hard labor and I can prove that my odds are pretty high." Coba admits. "Either way, only a few of us at a time will go hunting food." Plutark explains.

"Me, Botan and Dagan will be doing the duties today." Plutark eyes the others. The others just look at him with googly eyes. "Alright then." Botan stands up. We all get up and begin heading out of the area...

* * *

 _ **Sooner or later...**_

* * *

Me, Botan and Plutark all slowly make our way through the forest. Still no snow, and the sun is out. However, the snow isn't melting or anything.

"UGH! I hate this arena already." Botan grits her teeth. "I know right." I look around. The thing I've just noticed about the sun being out along with the snow being all around [Other than the fact that the snow should be melting right now] is that it makes it very hard to see. GAH! It's annoying.

"If only we had some sun glasses or something." Plutark squints his eyes as we make it to the stream. I kneel down at the stream and take off my backpack. I stop for a moment though. What if the water is poisonous or something like that?

"Come on Dagan. Just get on with it." Botan tells me. Remembering the events of last night though. It probably wouldn't be poisonous considering how I was choking on it yesterday but I never died or anything.

I put my canister in the stream and refill it with some fresh water. "Where are we going to find food anyways?" I look around.

"Don't worry. We'll find some at some point today." Plutark squints and looks around. The sun is reflecting light off of the snow which is annoying as hell. The rest of us can barely even see.

As we walk along the stream and prepare to cross it, Botan brings up a good point. "Maybe the gamemakers are planning to pull something since we all are blinded by this whiteout."

"That's actually a good point. Maybe we should keep our eyes peeled for something." Plutark tells us. I dip my foot into the stream, trying my hardest not to fall in and get myself stuck like the other day.

I put my other foot in and begin walking a few feet. One step, I'm good. Another? I seem to still be able to walk through. The next step is actually very deep and I so I decide to try and jump across.

Somehow, I make it. "Wow. I got the stick and everything for you this time..." Plutark admits, disappointed. "Can you throw the stick over here?" I ask him.

"Catch!" He shouts, throwing it in my direction. I really should have thought about that though because I'm still blinded by the white out... which means the stick clonks me across the head.

I fall into the snow face first before looking back up. _Nearly fell into the stream..._

"Are you okay?" Botan asks, stepping into the lake. "I think so..." I begin to stand up. The stick is in the stream, rowing down it. I pluck it from out of the lake and point it in Botans direction.

She grabs on and I pull her to shore. Plutark grabs on next and I slowly begin to pull the 15 year old to the shore. However, before I can finish though, I'm launched into the ground by a very quick moving force.

It takes me a while to react but when I look up, I notice that there is a grey and white wolf on top of my. It raises its palm, ready to strike me. However, with all of my strength, I push it off of me.

I jump back. My heart rate has accelerated and my eyes are wide enough to let all of the sun soaked snow burn my eyes. However, I ignore that and start running through the snow.

"Dagan! Look out!" Botan shouts. I turn around a barely avoid the wolf who jumps over my head. I begin to take my backpack off my shoulder and grab my sickle. However, I notice that it begins to run in my direction, ready to pounce at the opportunity.

As I grab my sickle from my bag, its eyes turn red and it jumps at me with all of its might. I drop my bag and fall to the ground which causes me to roll off of the hill and back to the stream.

I look up and notice that now, there are multiple wolves. They all seem to have scars but my real concern is that they have the upper ground... great... Uh...

Suddenly though, Botan runs in and stabs one of the wolves with her sword. It goes straight through its stomach and the wolf flattens.

"WATCH OUT!" Plutark shouts, throwing a knife at the other one. Blood spills out from the head, however, it gets back up and jumps at me. I pull out my sickle and I jump out of the way.

It lunges at me once again. I dodge its claw and scratch it across the chest. It howls in anger but it doesn't stop. It stands back and begins howling at us.

"DAGAN! RUN!" Botan shouts. "That isn't going to help!" I tell her. I turn back to wolf which now gives me a very [red] angry look. Its eyes turn from red to a dark purple and then it begins blinking a dark navy rapidly.

"DODGE!" Plutark pulls me down to the ground. Right then, a laser zooms straight over my head.

 _Did that wolf just shoot a laser over us? What the hell?!_ We both get up and start retreating into the woods.

The dog begins chasing after us. I turn around as it begins charging another blast at us. "OH GOD!" Plutark shouts. I begin to turn my head to see what he's screaming about.

However, right as I do, I'm knocked into the ground by another wolf. I raises its paw to claw at me. I reach over to grab my sickle only to realize I dropped it in the snow somewhere.

 _GAH! WHATDOIDOWHATDOIDOWHATDOIDOWHATDOIDO!?_

It makes a horrible howl before it goes flying off of me. Botan kicked the wolf off of me. "Seriously. Watch yourself." She hands me my sickle and we begin to book it.

As we do so, the wolves all begin to chase us. "If only I had my spear. I could probably knock one of them down." I grit my teeth through as we charge through the snow. We can barely see in all of the whiteout snow but somehow we all notice the plateau in front of us.

"JUMP!" Plutark shouts grabbing onto my arm. At once, we both jump and then I realize why he said that... we just jumped off of a cliff...

Right before the thought of falling to my death can register in my head, we land in a lake. Plutark pulls me out of the lake and onto the shore. We begin coughing up water on the shore as Botan begins to wash up.

"Give... *Cough*... us... A better damn warning next time *COUGH!*!" Botan yells, coughing as well. "Sorry... I didn't really think about that until I saw the stream. I didn't think before I acted." He admits.

I look up as the wolves jump down into the stream and begin drowning. "I wish you would at least try..." I quietly laugh. "It isn't funny Dagan. That... that..." Botan looks up and begins stutter. Her face goes pale.

"Guys... don't turn around..." She warns us. Immediately, me and Plutark turn around and jump back. I was expecting another beast or monster of sorts... but that would be much better than what's right in front of us...

The careers (District 2, 7 the girl from 4 and the girl from 3) are busy talking about 40 feet from us when the girl from 3 looks up from the ground and notices us. She points at us and turns to them.

We all lock eyes for about a minute before the careers grin and pick up their weapons. "Well... what have we concluded today Plutark..." Botan grits her teeth.

"That we're going to die?" He answers with another question. "No. That you should have thought this through..." She grabs out her sword. Plutark immediately grabs out a knife and I hang onto my sickle.

 _Facing death right in the... face?_ I shake my head as the careers slowly make their way towards us. "Look who the gamemakers brought to us..." The boy from 7 starts swinging his axe around playfully.

"Don't worry, this time the cut in your head will actually impact your skull." The 7 girl smiles. "Should we run or should we fight them?" Plutark asks us.

I turn to him as we back up into the shore. "What the f*ck do you think?" I glare at him.

Behind us lay a 10-20 foot cliff... in front of us... the careers... _Why does life seem to want me dead today._

Plutark immediately throws a knife at the girl from 3 before pushing me into the stream. "TRY AND GET AWAY! I'll hold them off!" He shouts at me.

If I can swim around them, I can probably do something. However, this isn't the case considering our situation. Good thing the girl from 1 isn't here.

I begin pushing myself down stream as I watch the girl from 3 fall over. The knife seems to have hit her near the heart, however, she just ignores it and launches a rock from her slingshot at Plutark. He dodges it and the kids from 7 begin charging at him.

The girl from 4 [Who was looking a bit confused] looks down at me and sighs. "My goodness, it'll be just like any other day fishing with tridents..." She shakes her head before aiming the spear at my head.

 _OH GOD! I CAN'T DO ANYTHING!_

Before she can throw the spear at me though, Botan charges in from behind her and tries to attack her with the sword. The girl from 4 turns around and barely avoids the sword.

"MARIA! LOOK OUT!" The girl from 3 shouts as Maria [District 4 female] and Botan begin fighting. Spear on sword, it should be pretty easy to fight back. However, Botan seems to be struggling.

I begin to push myself to shore as the fight becomes really heated. Maria thrusts her spear towards Botans chest. She manages to block it with her sword. However, the girl from 3 [Who had been watching the fight] pulls out her slingshot and shoots a rock at Botan. It hits Botan in the thigh, throwing her off balance.

Maria then takes this opportunity to tackle her down to the ground. Maria then raises her spear in the air, about to strike. I stand back for a moment before rushing in to save Botan.

I run in and push Maria off of Botan. She rolls across the snow and I help Botan up. I hold my sickle tightly before throwing it at Maria. Maria motions to avoid the sickle... only to have it hook right into her stomach.

She falls into the snow with a violent yelp. My eyes flutter. Is she dead? _D-did... Did I just kill her?_ I fall backwards. However, she looks up at me before her eyes flutter... and then her head falls back into the snow...

 **"BOOM!"** The canon booms loudly across the arena. _She's dead... I... I'm a murder..._

I fall to my knees and stop myself from puking. "Dagan. Keep a hold of yourself!" Botan puts her hand on my back as she turns to the District 3 girl. The district 7 boy is running up behind her, shocked that the District 4 girl is dead.

Botan stands up and holds her sword tightly. She turns and gives me a nod. _She wants me to grab my sickle from the body..._

I turn around the Marias body. Lifeless...

I go over and close my eyes before pulling on my sickle. It makes a gross sound before I pull it out. Dark red blood remains on the tip of the sickle.

My eyes start to become foggy and I turn around to the 7 boy who is charging angrily at Botan.

Botan jumps back and dodges the boys first attack with his axe. I run in as well and start flailing my sickle like a madman.

The boy from 7 aims his axe at my chest when Botan counters it her sword. I thrust my sickle into his chest, he shouts before falling over. _Please don't tell me I killed him as well... Oh, but someone needs to die in order for me to go home._

I gasp as the boy from 7 begins to stand up grit his teeth at us. "Dammit. If it wasn't so bright out here, I could kill you..." He begins to stand up.

Right then, we here some rumbling and I begin to think that it's about to start storming. However, I feel a shift in the ground and I look up and notice that the cliff is beginning to collapse.

"AVALANCHE!" The girl from 3 shouts as the cliff begins to crumble and white snow begins to fall our way. We all begin to run away before Botan pulls on me. "CLIMB!" Botan shouts when she notices a lone tree nearby.

"But I don't know how to climb!" I shout. Botan looks at me with a horrified look before shaking her head and climbing. "GRAB ON!" She holds out her hand and pulls on me.

She pulls me up the tree and I hold on for dear life as the tree begins to shake as the avalanche buries the area with snow.

After a few minute, it stops and we are left to investigate. "Do you think the careers got away?" I ask, looking around. "Of course. Also, we need to make sure Plutark is alright." She tells us.

"I'm alright!" He shouts from afar. "Huh?" We both look around and Notice Plutark rising from the snow near the stream.

"What? How did you survive that?!" Botans eyes widen. "I was under the cliff when it collapsed and so all the snow fell above me and not on me. I was perfectly safe." He tells us.

"Really now..." I admit.

"We aren't though... the careers are after us." Botan puts her sword into the ground. "And... And I killed her..." I begin to tear up.

"Who?" Pluatark asks. "The girl from 4... I... I just..." I begin.

"Don't worry. We don't have time for that yet. Come on. We gotta get back to the rest and see if they're okay." Plutark interrupts me and he begins climbing up the snow.

I hold in my tears and begin to follow.

 _The 2nd day... the worst day of my life..._

* * *

Well... today was very eventful wasn't it... Okay. For those who don't know, I've been playing [Legend of Zelda] Breath of the Wild recently and the 2nd day was definitely inspired by some of the things that I saw when playing. (Specifically the wolf attack by the stream... I was attacked by a guardian by the castle by a stream and got my ass kicked...)

Anyways. Dagan gets his first kill and he seems very upset about it. We also meet Coba and Rena. I tried my hardest to capture a country-like voice from them. (Like using words like _ain't_ instead of _aren't_ but all well. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I had fun writing it.

 **District7axemurder** \- To be honest, I think I might have made Dagan a little too lucky... especially with this chapter. Anyhow, there will definetly be alliance battles but this alliance will mostly be avoiding the careers since they're mostly weaker tributes (Plutark, Dagan and Botan are all exceptions). Though this was only the first.

Alright people! I'll see you next chapter!

 _P.S. I've can't stop listening to_ **Jamiroquai - Too Young To Die** when I write this for some reason... it kind of does fit though...


	10. Day 3 - Moonlight

As I sit back against a tree as the snow begins falling, I try and block out all memories of the previous day. The fight in the snow. The wolves. The careers. The girl from 4...

The Panem anthem blasts for the 2nd time now. _Though it is a little late._

The first face to show up is the District 3 male. I gaze up at the sky, wondering what happened to the boy. He obviously wasn't apart of the career alliance.

As the anthem continues playing, Botan wakes up. "If only they kept that loud as hell anthem down..." Botan gripes as she tries to rest.

She looks up at the face. "I'm surprised District 3 isn't in the alliance this year honestly." She admits. "Same here." I cough. The snow continues falling as the next face shows up.

I swallow some saliva. The girl from 4. My kill...

Botan gives me a look before laying her head back down on the snow. "I don't know about you but I need some rest." She admits, laying down on her backpack. "Yeah. I'm just gonna keep watch for the whole night if nobody gets up or anything." I admit.

We sit around in silence for a while. I look down at Rena who is sleeping like a cat right now. The others are also doing pretty well. Plutark has his weapon under him for protection. The thing about our group is that we specifically made sure that if we manage to take down all the careers, we have two choices. Either we all split up and give a good look or we see who will betray us first.

Plutark was actually pretty hesitant to sleep in fact. The girl from 3 had that damned tracker. Only she can't kill us by herself so she got the help of the careers.

I wonder if she has any wires or anything like that. Maybe she would electrocute us all like some of the former victors from 3. I shook my head. Hopefully not.

"What do you think everyone's doing at home?" Botan asks. "Why do you ask?" I question her. She lowers her head. Why would anyone want to bring up home in the Hunger Games? The fact that I have a very small chance of getting makes it a good idea not to think about family.

"Asleep." I shrug. "Yeah but what about when we're up and about. What do you think about then?" She asks. I pause for a brief moment. Our surroundings are quiet, like the Capitol wants to here this.

"Dad is probably drunk or something." I sigh. "My parents... eh." She sighs. Back at training, she always asked about my family for some reason. However, I never asked about hers or anything... I wonder.

"What's wrong with your parents?" I ask her. She closes her eyes before laying up and looking at the dark clouds in the sky. "Oh, nothing." She admitted.

I gave her a suspicious look. Is something up with her parents or something.

I decide not to ask again and we just continue sitting around in boredom. That's when I hear a snapping sound. Botan and me both get up at once. We both look at each other before nodding.

We both wake up the rest of the group who groggily get up. Weave grabs my spear and points it in the direction where the sound is coming from.

Plutark tells him to put it down and we all begin to back up. Rena struggles to get up due to her head wound so Coba helps her up. I grit my teeth as a gut feeling forms in my stomach.

The sound of twigs stops as we begin grabbing our stuff and sneaking away. "What do you think that was?" Weave whispers. "Quiet." Coba orders him to shush as we begin backing up.

We begin moving away from the location for safety... when suddenly something crashes through the trees. Everyone manages to jump out of the way swiftly as the beast turns itself around.

I have to squint my eyes a bit to see what the hell this monster is. However, it comes charging at Coba and Rena before we I get a chance. It beelines straight for Coba and Rena.

"MOVE!" Rena shouts, pushing Coba off of her. Before she can dodge the monster, it rams straight into her, sending her flying into a tree. She hits it before falling face first into the snow.

 **"BOOM!"** a canon fires not too long after. "Rena!" Coba shouts. He begins to run over to her body before Plutark stops him. "Stop! She's gone Coba! We have to get out!" He pushes Coba back.

We begin sprinting away from the creature. _It's a ram! Definitely a ram!_ It screeches before launching itself in our direction. At the least second, I jump out of the way of the Ram who stops itself and turns around.

"Get down Dagan!" Plutark shouts, grabbing some throwing knives. I duck as they go soaring above my head and into the ram who shrugs it off as if they were nothing.

I back up. "You realize that was a dangerous move, right?" Botan questions Plutark. "Now it not the time." He tells her as the ram starts charging at us again.

Botan jumps out of the way and attempts to zip open her backpack. She grabs out her weapon of choice, the sword she got with the bag. However, the ram turns around and starts charging towards Weave.

"AAH!" He shouts, dodging the beast and grabbing his spear. He aims it at the ram who only snorts and begin charging at him again. As it rushes towards him, he throws the spear at the ram.

It stabs into it like nothing and just continues after him. "MOVE!" Coba quickly pulls him to the ground as the beast runs straight past him. During that entire battle, I'd been trying to get my Sickle off my bag like an idiot and had only just then succeeded.

 _Right as it went to go target we too..._

I dodge the ram who runs into a tree, dropping a foot of snow onto itself. I immediately charge in and stab the ram over and over again. It snorts again before backing up.

However, Botan has other plans as she charges in and straight up stabs the damn thing in the spinal area. It doesn't stop though. It turns around before stomping its feet in rage.

I gulp as the thing faces my direction. "AIM FOR THE THROAT!" I shout to the rest who nod. It starts running in my direction, ready to strike. However, I'm caught off guard by its speed and before I can dodge it, I feel a sore feeling in my back and I'm launched backwards.

When I finally hit the ground, I feel too dizzy to even stand. Though I do hear Botan in the distance shouting my name. I feel someone picking me up and getting me to my feet.

 _Coba._

"Watch out! This bastard ain't goin down easily." He tells the rest. "We can see that. Just it seems to be getting faster every time we strike it." Plutark explains.

It charges towards Botan who jumps out of the way right as it hits a tree. With a shout, she raises her sword and stabs it downwards into the beasts throat. Blood comes out and then, it drops the the ground like a fly.

Everyone just stands around silently as the beast hits the ground. "So..." Weave begins.

"I guess we found ourselves something to eat?" Plutark admits, stabbing into the beast.

As the moonlight shines down upon us, I turn to Botan who only sits down and silently sighs in the snow...

* * *

 **Many... Many hours later...**

* * *

The sound of birds chirping echo throughout the arena as we make our way through the snow. A while ago, the snow had stopped to our curiosity. Hopefully the gamemakers don't pull out the sun like they did yesterday. We could barely even see.

However, we make our way to a stream. Once again, I fill up my water canister with fresh water from the stream. As we sit down around the lake, Weave notices something far across from us.

"Hey. Do you guys see that light over there?" He asks us. We all look over at a flat plains area. A eerie glow is coming from something over in that direction.

"Should we go over there?" He asks Plutark. "Are you kidding? I wouldn't let your curiosity get the best of us. Not yet at least." Botan admits. Plutark thinks for a minute before getting up and going.

Just earlier this morning, we'd lost Rena. If anything, he wants to keep this alliance together long enough for us to get the careers out of the way. However, with 3 members dead already and so many attacks, it's about time for us to collapse.

I turn around to Botan who is whistling. _I wonder if I should ask her about leaving the alliance._ Along with Plutark, she seems to be pulling the alliance somehow.

As we begin thinking, Weave jumps up and begins heading towards the light. "Hey, where are you going?" Botan asks. "Over there. I gotta see what's up." He begins running over there.

"Ugh. Dammit, don't be a fool!" Coba shouts as we grab our items and head in that direction. We make it to the plains where a lone light stands inside a light pole of sorts is...

 _"Look directly into this..."_ It reads. "Don't be stupid. This must be a trap or something." Coba grits his teeth. Coba has been very on edge since Rena died. He was here protecting her only for her to die because she wanted to protect him. I can understand...

However, Weave ignores us and looks into it. "Nothing is happening. I wonder if it is go-," Suddenly, a blue liquid comes straight out of the light and into his eyes, knocking Weave into the ground.

"AAAAHAAAHHHAAA! MY F*CKING EYES!" He yells. "Weave! Are you alright?" Plutark runs over to him. He groans in pain as he covers his eyes.

"Ow... my face... all over my face... Ugh..." He groans. "What did we tell you? Don't let your curiosity get the..." Coba suddenly stops as the ground starts shifting.

"TREMOR!" Botan shouts as the ground starts shifting. Thankfully there aren't any trees in this area. We all drop the ground as everything starts shaking like crazy.

I'm on the verge of vomiting by the time it's done. "Holy... how did that hap-," Plutark stops. I open my eyes and look up. My mouth just drops. A bunch of white buildings... all made out of snow. They all seem to have just appeared out of thin air.

"This... this is..." Botan looks around. She goes silent from utter shock. It's Weave who has to break the silence for us.

"This is District 8..." He drops to his knees.

* * *

 _CLIFFHANGER! BOOOOO! Anyhow, even through spring break I failed to really write anything. I don't know why, I guess I was too lazy or something. Btw, I wrote this entire chapter in 3 hours. It's 1 am here and there is a hail storm going on outside._

 _Funny thing. I feel like life has been messing with me for some reason when it comes with Hunger Games. For one, one of the recent chapters of this SYOT I participated in involved an event similar to the one seen at the end of this chapter (I'm going to ignore the fact that my tribute died in the recent chapter. I'm glad I don't have to hold my breath reading the story anymore)._

 _That and I recently started reading the nameless chronicles fanfiction series again (Cause why not?) and a move at the beginning of the new series was similar to something that happened in a previous mentioned event._

 _Oh. Spoilers. I've been planning this since I 2014 and it's supposed to be a_ _pentalogy that will include the 98th, 99th, 100th, a Catching Fire ripoff and eventually a mockingjay ripoff._

 _Spoiler warning, my next one will be the 98th games because It has been brought up a lot. Anyways, I'll see you all in the next chapter! BYE!_


	11. Day 3 - Detonation

We all look at our surroundings. How does this make any sense. The buildings, made of snow, the represent the home district of Weave. District 8.

"How is this... How did this form?" He looks around. After a long silence from confusion. "Could this be from... that stuff that got in your eyes?" Botan speaks up.

"How would that even work? That stuff hit me in the eyes and... now we're all seeing 8." He rubs his hand against a building. It looks to have been completely made of snow.

"What even is this?" Coba looks around. "Maybe that stuff went through your eyes and targeted your brain and is bringing out you inner... home sickness I guess?" I decide.

"That would actually make sense, but where does this come from?" Coba questions. We seem to be in a mock reaping square of District 8 completely made of snow. We begin walking around the eerily empty snow built town square.

"What's even the point of this?" Botan asks. "The gamemakers are definitely up to something. Keep your eyes peeled." Plutark orders. A cold breeze flows through the area. As we walk through alley way after alley way, I wonder why this is here and why it is necessary.

As we look around, Weave touches a wall. "This is... this is the factory..." He wipes the snow. However, when he brushes the snow, 4 numbers are revealed.

"6-7... J-June Seventh?" He stands back. "Wait? June seventh? The hell does that have to do with anything?" Pluatrk goes up and looks at the wall. "The date on the factories... out of all dates, why?" He falls to his knees.

"Oh right. They have those schedule things for the factories in 8 I'm guessing. Why are you upset about June seventh though?" Botan asks. Right around that time we hear a screeching sound. Everyone (Except Weave) turns around in shock.

Weave falls to his knees before crying. "I know what's going on now... June Seventh..." He wipes his tears.

"That's the day... my parents died... in an accident..." He turns to us. "Wait? What?" I question him. Before he can explain more though, a building explodes only a block away. The blast us throws us at a building.

"Ow! What was that?" Coba hits the ground. As we begin to stand up, we're all tackled to the ground by Weave. "GET DOWN!" He shouts, tackling us all at once.

 **"BOOOOOOOOOOOM!"** The building behind us explodes and a wave of heat emerges among us. "AAAAAAAAAAAH!" Weave screams in agony as everything around us is engulfed in a giant explosion.

Me and Botan are both knocked into another wall before we fall back into the snow. I begin to open my eyes, but when I open them, all I see is black smoke and red flames emerging from the snowy version of District 8.

"Weave?" I weakly cry his name. "Dagan..." Botan quietly cries my name. As we both slowly begin to get to our feet, another explosion knocks us back into the wall.

I hit the wall with a helpless yelp before sinking back into the snow again. "WEAVE!" Botan shouts his name again. _No answer..._

 **"BOOM!"**

 _There's our answer..._

 **"BOOM!"**

"Botan? BOTAN?!" I shout her name. "I-I'm okay..." She gets up. "COBA! DAGAN! BOTAN!" Plutark shouts. He must have been shot about a block or two away.

"Plutark!" I weakly cry out his name. "Weave and... and Coba... They're both..." Botan gets up. I lift her to her feet and we struggle to get out of the explosion...

* * *

 **Hours later...**

* * *

"I can't believe they're gone..." I repeat to myself. Though, I'm not quiet about my sadness though. Botan and Plutark are right behind me. "If I hadn't let them go..." Plutark says to himself. As I shake my head, I look up at the clouds in the sky. Eventually, the fire died out due to snowfall but things are still terrible in our group.

We had Zipaah, the District 8 female, Rena, Weave and Coba all die in shorter than two days. "I wonder if the Game Makers really want us... dead..." Botan admits.

"We need to keep our eyes open. The game makers are unpredictable douches this year." Plutark says to us. I look up at the clouds. _I feel myself losing hope. Maybe I'm next? Maybe I'll meet mom again when I-,_

The sound of a tree branch snapping interrupts my thoughts and echos across the turns to around. Plutark turns back to us and gives us the 'be quiet' signal. He grabs out a knife before pointing it in the direction of the sound.

Next thing we know, Botan grabs her sword and I pull out my sickle. _The careers... it must be the careers. It seems as if the Game Makers really want us all dead... but why?_

As I swallow my saliva, I begin to think. _How are we going to counter these assholes when they atta_

"HYAAA!" I high pitched scream jumps through the bushes and aims for Plutark. He swiftly avoids the persons spear and immediately cuts the person across the face. She falls to the ground, albeit alive.

However, she pushes herself across the snow before getting to her feet. "No. I'm not weak and useless!" She goes in to shove the spear into me. However, I quickly dodge it and throw my sickle at her. The girl ducks and it hits a tree.

Before the girl can get up, Botan quickly kicks her in the stomach, knocking her to onto her stomach. It's now that we clearly know who she is. _The District 3 female..._

"Why... Why can't I fight back!" She glares at us as she gets to her feet. "What do you want from us?" I ask her. She doesn't answer me. Instead, she shoves he spear at me. Botan quickly knocks her spear out of the way with her sword.

"Are you leading the careers here?" She asks her. "No! They tried to kill me because I was useless... Like I've always been..." She drops to her knees. After a pause she begins to sob emotionally.

"They tried to kill you? Why?" Plutark asks. "Because... I lost the radar and we lost Shirath (District 1 Male) to the avalanche. They blamed it on me and attempted to kill me today." She cries.

"Oh." Plutark nods before turning around and leaving. "Wait? Where are you going?" Botan asks. Plutark stops before turning around.

"We're leaving her here. She's probably going to try and kill us just like the careers. Not much of us left anyways. Rena, Coba and Weave are all dead too." He reminds us.

"I want to join you guys," She shouts, suddenly. We all stop before turning around to her. "Why should we let you?" Plutark asks you. "I... I-I just wanna have friends... someone I know that can protect me..." She explains, standing to her feet.

"... How many other tributes are not in alliances..." I say to myself. The others both turn to me and catch wind of what I just said. "You know, Dagan has a point. The careers... their are 6 of them... there are 3 of us... Only us and them..." Botan admits.

"Can I please join you?" The District 3 Girl asks again. "FINE! Just we'll be watching you." Plutark finally accepts her. "That and we don't have any weapons for you." I bring up.

"Thank you. Thank you so much." She begins crying.

"Shhh. We have to get out of this area before the careers begin hunting again." Botan orders her to be quiet. "Alright." She nods. We begin traversing through the quiet forest...

* * *

 ** _Remaining Tributes (I lost count earlier)_**

 **District 1 Female (Clissa)**

 **District 2 Male**

 **District 2 Female (Terra)**

 **District 3 Female (Atlus)**

 **District 4 Male**

 **District 5 Male (Plutark)**

 **District 7 Male**

 **District 7 Female**

 **District 9 Male (Dagan)**

 **District 9 Female (Botan)**

 **District 12 Male**

 _Yeah, short chapter and all but still. I began doing the Odds and Evens series (Which explains every Hunger Games 1-100) recently and got really into it, started doing Dragon Ball Alpha once again and had to put this one down for a while. However, I'm still going to try and bring this series back to life as much as I can._

 _I actually never explained how District 8 (Made out of snow) just randomly popped up in the arena. You see, that stuff that got into Weaves eyes in the previous chapter actually goes through his eyes and to his brain and find a dark memory from his past. It transmits this to the arena and then it appears. Yeah, a little hard to believe but it seemed like a fun idea._

... Reviews?


	12. Day 4 - Gifts

As the moon floats above the sky, me and Plutark await the anthem. Plutark decided to be on guard for the night and I still can't sleep. "So, your father isn't completely stave." Plutark sadly lowers his head after I talk about my dad.

"Yeah. After mom died, he beat himself up over it. He believed it was his fault." I explain.

"Man. Back in 5, I think we have it better than you guys." He admits. "You think?" I say sarcastically.

"Heh. Well we get a small share of the power from the Capital so that's one." He admits.

"To be honest though, I'm luckier than a large percentage of the District. I get some pretty good wages considering the high amount of drunks in the District." I reveal.

"You work at a bar?" He asks. "I guess you can say that." I nod.

The anthem finally begins playing and we now have the overview for the day.

 **Weave (District 8 Male)**

 _Plutark retches. I can understand why. He wouldn't have been dead if we hadn't just followed him into the plains instead of stopping him or something smart._

 **Coba (District 11 Male)**

 _He tried his hardest to protect Rena. Then she died protecting him. Then he tried his hardest to protect us. He rescued me from the Ram during the battle that nearly ended our group and blocked the explosion that killed Weave… and then him._

 _He was here to protect. He volunteered to protect his brother. He fought to protect Rena. He fought to protect everyone he trusted. But this is the games… you can't protect people and live at once… I look down at Botan. Something really hurts in my throat right now thinking about it._

 **Rena (District 11 Female)**

 _Her death was sudden and shocking. She died protected who protected her time and time again but in the end, that wasn't enough to help her. If only… if only..._

The anthem ends and the night goes dark once again. I sigh to myself. "From what I can recall. The only non-alliance member in the arena still standing… is District 12…" Plutark explains.

"Yeah? What about him?" I ask, laying my head against a tree. "Well, it would make sense for the Game Makers to try and split us up in order to make things interesting for the views. It gets boring just watching us walk around you know." He admits.

"So that makes sense… so should we…" I begin. "No. We can't. We have another problem to deal with." He breathes in. I stare at him before realizing where he's going with his next plan.

"We're gonna have to go and fight the careers… aren't we?" I ask. "Yes. Then we can split up or something." He breathes out.

I look up at the moon. So much for protection. This alliance was a one way ticket to getting myself killed early on. Then again, Outside of the careers, there are 5 other tributes. 6 careers… 5 of us… 4 on our alliance… Well this isn't right.

The thought echos throughout my mind in the winter night. It started snowing again at some point and it hasn't slowed down. It's begun to get really… really cold. I hug myself, the cold is biting me like tiny ants.

By the time the sun begins to pop its head over the skyline, I feel like a Popsicle. Though thankfully Botan and The District 3 girl both begin to get up around that time. Oh, the girl from 3's name is Atlus by the way. I only remembered late last night.

"So, I guess we should all go hunting for food now." Botan picks up her backpack. I grab my sickle and nod. "We better look out. The Game Makers could probably lead the careers over to us or something bad like that..." I look around, making sure nothing is going to burst through the bushes.

The trees block out our view of the sky as we slowly make our way through the arena. However, I can tell that the clouds are parting and the sky is beginning to become clearer... which means the sun will come out... which means another whiteout...

I take a deep breath. "You know, I wonder how many non-alliance tributes there are..." Atlus thinks. I remind myself who has died. The careers had District 1, District 2, District 4, and District 7 giving them 8... currently 6 I think...

We currently have District 9 (Me and Botan), Plutark (District 5) and Atlus (District 3) giving us four. Counting the amount of people that have died over the past few days, I think there is actually only one surviving tribute from a non-alliance and that has to be the District 12 boy. Though I don't know where he is and I don't really care right now.

As we make it through the forests and the sun begins to come out, I think about our current situation. We still have some of the meat from the ram we fought the other day but still.

I assume that we just need time to get away from the care-,

I hear a ringing sound which interrupts my thoughts. We all look around. "What's that sound?" Atlus asks. Botan looks up. "HEY LOOK! A Parachute!" She points up at the sky and notices a small box attached to a parachute.

It begins descending before Botan picks it up. "I-It's a sponsor gift" I say, shocked.

It has a letter...

* * *

 _You two are doing well. Be careful with the careers. They're prone to splitting up... Reminder, don't trust your surroundings. Keep your guard and run. Also, this if for the District 3 female._

 _\- Oam_

* * *

"Hm..." I say to myself after reading the note. Botan attempts to hide a smile when reading. "She's actually watching." She grows a smile. I look up at the clearing sound.

"So is she saying that the careers have already disbanded and fought each other?" I think. Plutark comes over to take a look at the note. "Wait? You know how sponsors are not allowed to spoil the events of games happening elsewhere?" He asks us.

"Yeah actually. They wouldn't be dumb enough to let something like that pass through without thinking over it for years." I admit. "Actually, I think I understand what she's trying to tell us." Atlus admits. "Huh?" We turn to her.

"Remember when we attacked you guys?" She asks. On day 2, we were attacked by the District 1 Male, District 2 female, District 7, the girl from 4 and Atlus. However, the others were absent.

"Yeah actually." I remind everyone else. "Yeah, you see they'd split up when searching for tributes and guarding the supplies because they had a lot of people and it would have been best to split up and do everything." She explains.

"So wait... they're not in a whole pack right now?" I ask. "Probably not. If they're hunting at least." She nods.

"Well even so, it matters on who's out there and who isn't. Currently, we don't know who's searching for us." Botan sighs, picking up the box.

"Also, it looks like this is for you, Atlus." Botan hands the box to Atlus. It's a brown leather box made. She opens it and inside... a relatively big knife.

"Wait? This is for me?" Atlus asks, picking it out of the box.

"Oh my goodness, really Oam? Alliances don't last long in the games, why give her the weapon?" Plutark yells at the sky. "Now that you think about it, he's got a point." Botan admits.

"Well I don't really have a weapon." Atlus says, lowering her head. "Fine then. But you can only have it when necessary. If you backstab any of us... Boom..." Plutark tells her.

 _And this folks, is probably the most threatening Plutark has been in the games. Who can blame him though?_ We've lost 5 of the alliance members in a short period of time and... and things have been getting really bad. Having a career just suddenly join us is random.

Though Atlus is pretty clear and I don't think she's playing us, she isn't someone I'd trust with any weapons. Besides that, this is the Hunger Games. We fight to the death and stuff so having an alliance isn't really the funnest of things.

"So... what are we gonna try and do?" Atlus asks. "There isn't much we can do against other tributes. Reminder, the only tribute that isn't in an alliance and is still alive currently is the District 12 boy and we don't know if he's actually still alive or anything... who knows." Botan reminds us.

I sigh. The sun shines and the snow reflects it, hurting our eyes. "Augh! Here they go again with thi-," Atlus stops at the sound of a broken twig.

"Okay so at the moment we can't see... and I also think something is after us..." I stop and tell everyone. "Well it's easy to conclude that the Game Makers want us all dead." Botan says.

We begin running through the trees as quickly as we can, knowing that something is behind us, though we aren't fully sure.

Suddenly, something tackles me to the ground. "AAAH!" I shout. Through the small amount of vision I can see through, I see Atlus try and cut the thing in the back. However, it's Plutark who kicks it off of me.

"Come on!" Plutark grabs my up. I pull my sickle off of my backpack and squint my eyes to see what's after us. Then I see it... A sabertooth tiger attacking Botan.

I rush over to Botan and try to help her fight the beast off. She swiftly stabs it in the throat, knocking it down.

"Is it just me or did it look like its batteries died or something." Atlus pokes at the now dead mutt. "Of course you'd say that." I kick the mutt.

"No, I mean a second ago it was attacking all fired up and angry and not even 5 seconds later a 14 year old girl can just swiftly slice it in the throat." Atlus explains. I look around.

"Now that you think about it? What's the point in having this here if it ju-," Botan begins before suddenly.

 **"SWOOSH!"** A dart goes flying right past me and Botan. We quickly turn to the direction it flew from. _Is it the careers? Already?! No, it can't be. I don't think any of them shot darts which means... District 12._

"Its District 12." I tell them. Botan rolls her eyes. "You don't say..." She jumps through the bushes like a ninja before I can even react. "Botan, wait!" Plutark shouts at her as she jumps through the bushes.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

 **"BOOM!"**

I jump through the bushes and see Botan standing over the District 12 boy... who is now dead...

"You... Why did you kill him?" Atlus asks. Botan gives her an annoyed look. "This is the Hunger Games dumbass. We're supposed to kill you know." She argues.

"Well there's a problem with that. With him being the only other non-alliance member, the Gamemakers will either wait the careers out in order for them to split up and fight... or lead them here... Which is much easier..." Plutark explains our new situation.

"Oh... oh shit now that's just dandy..." She sighs.

* * *

 ** _Around Evening..._**

* * *

As the sun begins to set on the snowy tundra, I stare up into the sky with a tired look on my face. _I don't know weather to say I miss home or not... I don't really miss dad but I miss District 9..._

As my mind explores, Botan slowly inches to me before putting her hand on my shoulder. "Can't sleep?" She asks. I force out a smile. "No." I nod to her. It's comforting to know someone else is up. Though she was on guard for the night.

"So we've made it to the top 10. How does that make you feel?" She asks. I pause for a moment. District 9 when it comes to Hunger Games can be all over the place. From bloodbath to maybe around the early top 10s. It isn't anything really special though we haven't had a victor since Oams win back in the 80th games.

"Anxious." I laugh. She nods to my response. "I can say that too." She admits, looking up at the sky. The clouds have come back in and by this point, it has begun snowing again. Though I don't know weather to say I hate the snow. The bite and chill from the winter snow has become all to familiar to me and I've really stopped remembering how District 9 was.

It was chilling back home during winter season, but here it seems to be worse. Thankfully though, not many of us have frozen to death. I breath in some cold air. "What would you say if you actually made it out? You know, as a victor." She asks. I think again.

"Help me." I say. Botan begins to grow a smile. "You know, our alliance has a pretty large will... you know, to live." She admits. "I wouldn't say that honestly. We lost so many..." I stop her.

"Oh yeah... well maybe just us two?" She changes the wording. I look back over the past 4 days. We've been running from beasts, tributes and trying to find our way in the arena over these past few days. I'm surprised that we haven't been killed yet.

"Maybe you're right." I nod. The clouds begin parting once more, and now the moon shines brightly over the arena. "I hope I can go home..." I say to myself, my throat becoming dry when I say that.

Botan only nods at my comment. I turn to her and gaze into her eyes. She's not as tan as the others from 9, but you can still tell that's where she comes from. "I wish there was a way two could get out together." I say, gaining her attention.

She stops and gives me a curious gaze. "Is that your excuse of saying you wish both of us could come home together, and be... you know, close?" She asks. I stop breathing for a split second.

"Well... the audience did say they shipped us." I admit. "Well... what if I told you I wasn't supposed to go back home." She tells me, closing her eyes. I stop before looking back at her. "What do you mean?" I ask.

She only shakes her head. "I... I don't really want to explain it right now." She tells me. "Well... what if I told you we shouldn't have been reaped." I say. She looks up at the moon before looking at the snow on the ground.

"What if I told you... that it... in a way, was fate." She says. "What if I told you, that I seriously don't understand what we're talking about." I smile. She rolls her eyes before nodding.

"If only I knew of you before the reapings. If I did, this wouldn't be as awkward..." She sighs before rolling her eyes. "We'd probably be great fri-," I begin, before she suddenly kisses me on the lips, forcibly.

She pushes me back. After a whole moment of silence, I speak up. "Well... that was..." I begin. "Told you." She nods. I give a smile. "Well, if we're separated, that'll keep us together." I admit.

"... You know something Dagan..." She looks up at me. "Hm?" I stop.

"W-What... What if I told you not to be afraid... not to be afraid to die." She tells me. I notice something about her. She seems to be holding in tears. "To me, it doesn't matter how I die anymore. It matters on why I die." I tell her.

"Well..." She begins... before silence. We hear the sound of rustling bushes in the background.

Me and Botan look at each other for a second before going and waking up Atlus and Plutark. They quickly get up and grab their weapons and items.

As we begin to back up while making sure they aren't following us... someone laughs.

"What if _we_ told you... that you're going to die?" I here a girl laugh. _Careers, it's them._

"Remember what oam said." Botan turns to me.

"RUN!"

* * *

 ** _Living Tributes_**

 **District 1 Female (Clissa)**

 **District 2 Male**

 **District 2 Female**

 **District 3 Female (Atlus)**

 **District 4 Male**

 **District 5 Male (Plutark)**

 **District 7 Male**

 **District 7 Female**

 **District 9 Male (Dagan)**

 **District 9 Female (Botan)**

* * *

 _Nothing much to say other than I kind of had fun with this chapter. Though I didn't really know what to do considering how little tributes their were. Really this happens to date back to the training when I wrote in the District 11 tributes as well as District 6 into the alliance. I also needed District 8 so along with Plutark and District 9, they took up 8 out of the 24._

 _The careers had Districts 1, 2, 4, 7 as well as the District 3 girl meaning that they had 9 out of the 24. Because of that, 17 out of 24 tributes were in some alliance or the other._

 _Most non-Alliance members were killed off so..._


	13. Day 5 - Survive

The sound of footsteps still are audible as the four of us rush through the woods. _Being chased by the careers no less..._

"Why won't you just slow down and die!" The District 2 female shouts at us as we run away. "They're gaining on us!" Atlus shouts as we run. My heart is pounding. _How far can we get before they catch us?_

 _How for will we get?_

"Why can't we go and fight them?" Botan asks as she pants heavily. "We can't fight them yet. We should be able to tire them out." He tells us. "But what if they catch us first?" I ask.

"We're heading towards the mountains, they'll have to try their hardest to catch us in their!" He tells us. "But I thought there weren't any... I thought their was a force field in the way or something like that." I say.

"You were wrong." He tells me. Well it seems I learn something new everyday...

As we continue running through the woods, I can hear the careers slowing down. The 4 of us are actually on quite a similar pace so we manage to all stick together and get the heck out of the way. However, we can only stay away for so long...

"We... We need a plan..." Atlus says, trying to catch her breath. "I know. We just... we just need some time." Plutark punches a tree. I look up at the moon again.

"We should just continue north." I say. "Yeah but my chest hurts. In 3, we don't get out much ya know." Atlus argues. I roll my eyes. "We can split up." Botan says. Everyone turns to her before Plutark shakes his head.

"No. Too desperate." He shakes his head. He turns to the three of us before closing his eyes. "What do you mean too desperate?" Botan asks, her tone getting loud. Her facial expression begins to change to anger. She walks up to him. "Isn't our very goal as a group to survive for as long as we can? Why are we so keen on sticking together?" She asks.

He doesn't answer her so she the sword out of her backpack. "If you're thinking like that 9, then maybe we should just give up." He tells her, not questioning her anger. She pulls her sword to his throat. "Why? Why should we give up?!" She yells at him.

He finally turns around with an angry glare on his face. "You know... I didn't plan on being reaped this year nor did I expect to make it passed day 4." He argues. "Well neither did I, but I'm not letting months... years, of sacrifices and planning in order for this to go to waste." She argues, pointing her sword at him.

He stares at her before moving his eyes upwards as if he was telling her to turn around. She turns around to me and Atlus before pointing her sword at Plutark again. "We didn't join this alliance to be your body guards. I'm perfectly capable and fine with killing you, the girl from 3 and even my District partner... right now." She turns around to us.

"We cant' fail our mission, 5. Just we aren't at our best right now and it would be best to continue running away from the careers." Atlus tells Plutark. Plutark shakes his head before deciding to nod.

"Fine. Just we need to keep a steady pace. We can't lose any more of our group." He tells us. I grab out my sickle. "Well to be honest, we've already lost enough." I zip my backpack before putting it back on my back.

"And that means we have nothing to lose, doesn't it?" Botan gives me a confident grin. I nod back at her before we begin running through the snow once again...

* * *

 **Much later...**

* * *

As we continue rushing through the snowy forest, the aggressive wind has slowly started to pick up and we find ourselves running blindly through the woods. As the cold chill (Which I thought I had gotten used to) bites against me, I struggle to keep my footing in the suddenly deep snow.

"Come on guys! The Gamemakers are trying to throw us off. We need... We need to get to the mountains!" Plutark yells over the wind. "If the gamemakers are throwing us off, we are probably heading in the wrong direction." Atlus tells us.

"She's bringing up a good point, shouldn't we stop and make sure we're in the right direction?" I ask Plutark. He stops in his tracks and we all do the same. The wind continues to pick up as the snow falls.

"T-This way!" He shouts as we head west through the snow. Botan has kept her quiet and her sword to her side the entire time we've been running. I think it's been around or over 2 hours of us running for the hills [literally]. We barely have any time to stop. The careers could be right behind us for all we know.

"Don't you think we should have stopped by now? We've been running for so long now that I feel my chest imploding. Besides that, careers should be so far behind us now!" Atlus yells over the wind.

Plutark stops once again before grabbing out his knife. "Will you just stop bitching! We need to keep our distance from them. Also, the gamemakers are still after us. We need to be on our guard." He points his knife to her throat.

She falls into the snow, scared. "S-Sorry then. We'll have to keep on moving I guess..." She begins. However, before she can completely stand up, a stray lightning bolt strikes the ground not very far from us.

"Oh... oh shit guys, move!" Plutark pushes me out of the way right as another one strikes the spot I was in. The ground where I stood is completely burned. "Watch out for things like that! The Gamemakers are doing something else..." He turns his head to the sky. More lightning begins to form in the snowy sky. "We better hurry!" Botan shouts, motioning us to run.

Plutark picks me up and we all begin running. The wind, snow and lightning only seem to get worse as we attempt to get out of the storm. Okay scratch that, ** _it is..._**

Snow blows in my face and eyes as we escape the darkness. "I think we're almost there. It's not too far away. With the higher ground we should be able to out maneuver the care-," Plutark begins. However, he's cut off by a very quick streak of light the moves straight past him.

"You aren't going any further... kids." Clissa (District 1 female) sits in a tree with her arrows in hand. Not very long after, the District 2 female and District 7 Male come out with their weapons.

 _So I see. The Gamemakers were leading us to the careers... oh... no..._

"I have to admit. You brats have survived a lot longer than we expected. But you've also survived longer than necessary honestly. We killed all the other tributes a little too early but you'd expect us to have killed you sooner." The District 7 girl laughs, swinging her axe like a bat.

I tightly press onto my Sickle. "Weapons ready?" My breath shakes as I open my mouth. "I thought'd I'd be safer with you 3... but I-I'm guessing I was an idiot to join you." Atlus backs up against me. Botan grits her teeth as the District 1 girl begins laughing.

"Hey. It seems little miss britches finally found a loving [and soon dead] alliance. Too bad... You were going to die anyways..." The District 1 girl climbs out of the tree. Lightning strikes not very far away. Her face lightens up in the darkness.

"I-I have a plan guys... Just I'm kind of afraid about pulling this one off." Plutark whispers to us. "And what is that?" I ask. "When things go south... one by one you should all try and escape. The only real dangerous long ranger here is Clissa and I'm going to fight her. Botan, you get the girl from 7. Atlus and Dagan, you both fight 2." He tells us.

"Leave you behind?" I whisper back. He nods before closing his eyes. "Y-you're really..." Atlus begins. "*Ahem*" Botan slaps Atlus before we all turn to the other tributes.

"I can here a pin drop from here. You might want to... I don't know, fight us?" The District 7 girl jokes before charging in our direction. Botan immediatly goes forward to her to attack while Plutark quickly jumps at Clissa. Though hesitant, I charge forward towards the girl from 2.

 _Wait? Don't District 9 tributes usually end up as District 2 victims? Screw it, I'll have to fight._

The District 2 girl immediatly pulls out her sword and aims it at my head. I slow myself down before stopping myself in the snow. The sword almost cuts me, however, I jump up and go to strike her in the chest.

However, she quickly jumps out of the way of my sickle before pulling out a smaller sword. She swings her sword at my head once again. I back up as it grazes the tip of my hair. Before she can act again, I aim my sword at her her head before throwing it. She just barely dodges it before running towards me.

I begin to run away but before I can, she quickly tackles me to the ground. "And now we end these pathetic games." She raises her sword, preparing to send it into my throat.

"MOVE!" Atlus comes out of nowhere and knees the 2 girl across the face and into the snow. Atlus picks me up. "Funny. Didn't I knock you over during training..." Atlus reminds me of our training.

"Well now you're not hurting me so..." I bring up as I pick my sickle back up. I look around and watch as both Plutark and Botan both hold their own against the other tributes. With Plutark it makes sense since he is going against the girl with the arrows but damn... Botan is actually doing pretty well against 7.

I turn back to the girl from 2 who is beginning to angrily pick up her weapon. "Didn't I tell you not to just stand around at training!" Atlus shouts at me before rushing at the 2 girl. The District 2 girl angrily looks up at her before getting to her knees.

Right before Atlus attacks, the District 2 girl swings her sword across the ground, tripping Atlus into the snow. "HAA!" The District 2 girl shouts, about to slice Atlus. I rush in and kick the 2 girl across the face, knocking her back.

I grab Atlus before pulling her a safe distance from the District 2 girl. "Thanks 9..." Atlus smiles up at me. She's bleeding from her mouth a little. "No problem." I give an uncomfortable nod before turning my head to the District 2 girl once again.

Her eyes are red now, filled with anger. "You know what... I. AM. SICK. OF THIS DAMNED ARENA! THESE DAMNED CHILDREN! AND... AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" She yells. _I think she's finally lost it._

She picks up her sword and runs at us. She angrily and quickly starts swinging her sword at us. I jump away from her swords. "JUST STOP!" She shouts, swinging it at me. Before I can dodge it though... **"SLISH"**

A very agonizing pain swells up in my thigh and knocks me to the ground. "AAAAAAAAH!" I shout as I fall to the ground. "D-Dagan!" Botan kicks away the 7 girl and aims her sword at the District 2 girl. She dodges it before kicking Botan in the leg, knocking her to the ground. Botan falls into the snow face first.

As I look up at the District 2 girl, the wind picks up and my vision is blurred. However, I can still tell how much of her is lost. She opens her mouth to speak but just closes it again before raising her sword on Botan.

"B-Botan..." I weakly cry out her name, attempting to stand up. My thigh hurts but I get up and rush towards the girl from 2. "NO!" Plutark shouts, stabbing the girl from 2 in the side.

The girl from 2 makes a very violent cry before she falls to the ground.

 **"BOOM!"**

The canon booms and my eyes widen. I stare at the girls dead body before Plutark turns to me. His face looks frozen in the chilling darkness and snow. He closes his eyes and tears begin to slowly fall. "J-Just run! Just go on without me!" He picks up Botan who weakly begins to stand up. She looks at him before nodding and running towards me. I support her up and we begin to try and get away. The girl from 3 runs up and helps us.

I turn around the moment the girl from 7 aims her axe for Plutarks head. **"Click!"** Plutark is swiftly knocked out. However, the canon does not go off so he's... somehow alive...

We begin to get ourselves out of the way as quickly as we can. I can hear the District 1 and 7 girls arguing on what they should try next. They could go after us and kill us but they wouldn't be quick enough to get to us and kill us and besides that, they have Plutark [Our leader] captured.

However, my thought is cut off when we reach an elevated part of the arena. "We need to climb up here... I think this is where the mountain area begins. Can you do this you two?" Atlus asks.

Botan doesn't answer, she seems frozen in time... but she still gives a nod. We begin to edge our way up the first hill. We now have an advantage if the two careers head our way since we have the higher ground.

However, my mind is still quiet. Thinking. Wondering. Wondering if Plutark will be okay... no, who am I kidding? He's as good as dead... I give a look to Botan who is as quiet as I am.

I recall back to our fight with the careers a second ago. She held her own against the District 7 female. Reminder, the District 7 female scored an 11. Botan scored a 9, sure but still...

 _What is she hiding from me now..._

* * *

 _ **Living Tributes**_

 **District 1 Female (Clissa)**

 **District 2 Male**

 **District 3 Female (Atlus)**

 **District 4 Male**

 **District 5 Male (Plutark)**

 **District 7 Female**

 **District 9 Female (Botan)**

 **District 9 Male (Botan)**

Just a heads up... the District 7 Male died... off... camera... Yeah I just wanted to lower the numbers and make the finale make sense... He's been written out of existence

* * *

 _H-holy... my blood pulsed when I got to the action. Originally I felt actually pretty bored writing the opening when they were running but bringing the careers back for the action was actually pretty fun._

 _So it seems that Botan isn't who she seems to be... and maybe she knows a little more about Plutark than we should (I brought up how I'll be doing a 98th and 100th Hunger Games soon... those will give a bigger explanation as to their backgrounds and I can't wait for those). I think after this chapter, we have around 2 or 3 more chapters left... and then the games will be done and everything will make so much more sense._

 _I'll also be revealing a preview for both the 100th and 98th Hunger Games stories in the final chapter in very... unexpected ways..._

 _Who do you think will die next?_

 _Reviews? Anyone?_


	14. Day 5 - Finale

By this time, we've been climbing these mountains for around 4 hours. My head aches as finish climbing one of the highest peaks. The snow and wind has gotten even worse by the time we've reached the tip.

 _But hey, we're all still alive aren't we._ In all honesty, I can't actually tell how long it's been. When we started running from the careers, it was near the end of day 4... but now I think it's around 7 or 8 for day 5.

 _The sun still isn't exactly up though..._

As we all rest, spread across the tip of a hill, Atlus gasps for air. "I still can't understand. Why did he... why did Plutark do what he did?" Atlus questions as she looks up at the sky. My face feels cold and I'm barely even able to move my mouth... or hands for that matter.

"F-Forget him for a minute, please. We just need to c-catch up." Botan says, taking a very large breath. "We haven't heard a canon so he isn't dead yet. I hope at least..." I sigh.

"Can't you just have a little hope. We... Considering how they careers were separated, we can hope that they are beginning to split up." Botan slaps me across the head. The cold makes the pain even worse. Time seems to move quickly as we sit on top of the mountain.

I turn and look to Botan who is partially asleep. Atlus is fully asleep. _How can they sleep in this cold?_ My thoughts feel muted in the very hard snow fall. I can barely see in front of me. _The better question would be, why the hell are we even up here._

What was Plutarks plan. Freeze to death all the way up here? I groan as I look up at the sky once again. The sun... hasn't come out at all today. It isn't like it's cloudy either. It's just straight up dark, moon out and everything. What's going on anyways?

 **"BOOM!"** A canon booms not very far away.

The canon shot was so loud in fact, that it managed to wake up Atlus and Botan at once. "HUH! WE HAVE WEAPONS!" Atlus pulls out her knife while Botan quickly draws her sword. "Guys, guys. It was just... the canon." I turn to the sky, realizing that could only mean one thing.

"P-Plutark... you don't mean..." Botan quietly says. My heart feels as if it has stopped beating. _Plutark? He's... he's gone now? Gone for good? B-But... he can't be..._

I shake my head. "No. He can't be. That could be the careers fighting or something like that." I shake my head, confident in Plutarks abilities. My energy falls though, I'm tired now. I barely think I can keep going. We're 5 days or so in now... I've seen so many people lose their lives, I've taken one in fact.

I want to cry, but I know that if I do they'll just turn into ice or something like that. The cold is making me lose my will. _All the will that remains..._

Botan turns and stares at me. "H-hey. Dagan?" She calls my name. I turn to her and our eyes lock for a few seconds. "Well... if we stick together, then maybe we can survive." Atlus sighs. As we sit around together, I look up at the sky. _I'm... so... tired..._

 **"BOOM!" "BOOM!"** Two canons fire.

It feels as if the mountains shook, like wow. Botan looks in the direction of the canon shots. She mouths something before looking back up at the still black sky.

As she does that, I begin to hear a ringing sound. Botan gives an exhausted smile before whispering. "Finally." She whispers. Me and Atlus look up and see a sponsor gift floating down.

"Another one?" I say as Botan jumps up and grabs it out of the air. "Is it food?" Atlus asks. Botan shakes her head, but that doesn't take off the smile she has when she reads the note Oam has.

* * *

 _Why do you 2 insist on getting my hopes up..._

 _Well, the careers have begun fighting as I'm writing this note so hopefully you get this in time. Also I wouldn't recommend getting your own hopes too high, Plutark... Plutark has perished. Continue your mission without him though. Please, Take this weapon you two. You're ready. Reminder, only one can come out... don't think too hard on it though. I love you both._

 _\- Oam_

* * *

I feel tears beginning to stream from my face. Same with Botan as well. From the looks we give each other, they could be from three different things...

 _1\. Either we realize how far we've come and soon we'll have to fight..._

 _2\. Plutark... Plutark has died..._

 _3\. Oam said she loves us..._

Atlus just stares. "I-Is Plutark? Is he dead?" She asks. I sadly nod to her. "We'll get home..." Botan nods as she takes the lid off of the box. I stand behind her, looking to see what's inside. She opens the box and reveals a crossbow. A few arrows right next to them.

"Huh? More weapons?" Atlus asks. "Yes, this one is important though." Botan licks her lips. She looks at me and Botan for a second. "Well... we'll have to wait for another canon shot... that's when we will know..." Botan admits.

"Huh?" I ask. "It's... It's hard to explain..." She responds. As we await for another canon... time seems to pass on...

* * *

The cold seems to bite us even harder as time passes up. I'm going to assume that the betting process has absolutly been destroyed in the last few minutes considering the amount of people rooting for the few remaining tributes. Right on time, the anthem plays.

 **District 2 Male -** Silence. He's the next one dead huh... Surprising that District 2 hit its low so quickly... hm...

 **District 4 Male -** Oh god... I killed his District partner and took his spear on the first two days... I kind of feel bad. He looked barely over me in terms of age but he had a reason to be here and to fight... but he died in the end...

 **Plutark, District 5 Male -** All at once, our breath stops. Plutark is dead... Dead for good. If it weren't for him... we'd all be dead by now, for sure. He risked EVERYTHING for us. We started with 8... if you aren't counting Atlus then there are only two of us left... I hear Botan on the verge of sobbing before the next name face comes up.

I hold in my sobs once more, I have so many things to cry about but I want to focus on the here and now...

However, the wind picks up around this time. I feel cold once again and I'm hugging myself to stay warm. "Should we group up to keep ourselves warm?" Atlus asks. Botan nods before we all jump into a pack.

Hm. A bunch of 14 year olds (Atlus is 13) jumping into a pack like a bunch of sardines. _How pathetic of us..._

"Hey! Look at these kids huddling up in this pack. How pathetic..." Some shouts.

 _Yeah! What he said! Wait..._

All the three of us jump at the sight and sound of two out of the remaining careers. Well actually, these are the only two careers left. "So it seems you hid all the way up here like a bunch of sissies huh..." The District 7 Female jokes, swinging around her axe casually.

"To be fair, two out of the three are girls. Well, maybe the 9 boy can fit into the category as well." Clissa (District 1) jokes. I begin to stand back. Atlus eyes our crossbow which Botan is guarding.

"Well anyways, this is the finale huh? The careers vs three teenage girls." The 7 girl points her axe at me. "Reminder, I'm a boy." I argue. She rolls her eyes. "Come on... prove it?" She asks.

"Dagan. We have literally no choice!" Botan tells me, pulling out her sword. I grab out my sickle while Atlus reaches for the crossbow. "NO!" Botan stops her. Atlus steps back.

"We need that." She tells her before handing Atlus her knives. We face our opponents who instantly begin charging forward at us. I take a few steps back as the District 1 girl charges at me.

Before I can even react, she tackles me to the ground with a knife in hand. She aims it for my head, but Atlus quickly kicks her off of me. She rolls across the snow in the wind.

I grab my sickle (Which I had dropped) and charge at the District 1 girl. As I swing my weapon at her head, she ducks under the attack before quickly kicking me in the shin, knocking me to the ground. Atlus runs in and attempts to fight the District 1 girl who pushes Atlus back. She rolls across the floor as I get up. I tackle the 1 girl to the ground as she goes to attack Atlus.

Atlus runs in and tries to stab the District 1 girl. However, she pushes me off of her before jumping up and going in for a quick jab at the District 3 girl. However, she quickly (And surprisingly) dodges the knife and stabs the District 1 girl in the chest. "AAAH!" She shouts as she is pushed back.

I expect that to be the last we see of Clissa... however, she just stands there... "RAH!" She shouts, going in to cut my throat with the knife. However, I quickly duck under it before kneeing the girl in the chest. She steps back before angrily going in for another stab. I jump back as Atlus runs in with her knife. At once, we both tackle the girl down.

However, I feel myself struggling to bring up my sickle. Though Atlus is more willing. "THIS IS FOR CALLING ME WEAK!" Atlus shouts as she brings her knife down. However, before she can finish, the District 7 girl runs in and picks up Atlus by her jacket. She drags her across the ground, confusing me. However, before I can run to her rescue, the District 1 girl overpowers me and knocks me to the ground.

"GET OFF HIM!" Botan weakly charges at the girl before punting her across the tip of the head. The District 1 girl is knocked out cold. I feel my heart pulse beat a lot quicker as I the District 7 girl raises her axe. I get to my feet and run over to help Atlus. I run up and stab the District 7 girl in the back. However, something in her jacket absorbs the blow.

She turns around and punches me into the snow. I can feel the impact of the fist to my nose as blood begins gushing through my nose. _Ow! Ow! Ow!_

The District 7 girl looks up before turning over to Botan who is gripping her sword. She nods to the District 7 girl before the two charge at each other at full speed. Botan swings her sword at the girl who ducks under it. She aims her axe for Botans chest but Botan quickly jumps out of range to avoid the attack.

She quickly swings her sword, cutting a straight line through the 7 girls jacket. She falls back, a getting weaker and weaker. Botan motions for us to join in and help so I quickly get up and charge in for an attack.

I swing my sickle at the 7 girl who ducks under the thing before throwing her axe at my chest. I just barely dodge that thing. **"SLASH!"**

Okay... well barely is an understatement because I notice blood pouring out of the side of me. "AAAAAH!" I shout as I fall down. The District 7 girl turns her attention away from Botan before running over at me with her weapon, knowing I'll go down quicker.

However, she jumps back at the sight of Atlus coming and attempting to stab her with her knife. The District 7 girl screams as she falls to the ground.

"SHE ISN'T DEAD?!" Atlus screams. "They're both wearing Armour, I can tell." Botan licks her lips. The District 7 girl gets back to her feet before angrily glaring at all three of us. She gets up and charges at me with her axe. However, before I can even react, she jukes me and swings her axe at Atlus.

"AAAAAAAAH!" Atlus shouts, falling to the ground. "Atlus!" I shout, running to her aid. However, right as I do that, the 7 girl aims for me. However, Botan quickly swings her sword at her causing the District 7 girl to jump away. She runs to her only other career member who is slowly starting to regain conciseness.

As I run over to the District 1 girl to take her out, the District 7 girl runs over and stops me. She goes in for another attack. However, I stop myself in the deep snow and prepare for another attack. However, she strikes down with her axe. I quickly counter with my sickle.

 **"BAM!"** Our weapons make a clashing sound before my sickle goes flying out of my hands. My face quickly turns to a fearful expression as the District 7 female now knows what to do to me. However, Botan quickly runs in with her sword.

"HAA!" She shouts, stopping the axe with her sword. The counter causes sparks to fly everywhere and embed themselves into the freezing snow. Sleet has started to fall as their fight continues.  
The two go back and forth with counters and evasions. They are attempting to get the better of each other with each swing they strike with.

"Stay down!" Botan kicks the District 7 girl down. She falls into the ground. "Come on!" The District 7 girl shouts, quickly getting to her feet.

I begin to walk back when I notice Atlus bleeding out of her stomach. She's crying, I want to cry as well. "It shouldn't have... it shouldn't have been like this..." She shakes her head as tears stream down her face. "Atlus, please..." I try to calm her down as I take her knife.

She looks up at me as I grab her knife. _She isn't gonna make it. No chance. She's too young though..._

As I grip her knife and charge towards the District 7 girl with Atlus' weapon, she curses before aiming her axe at me. I stop myself right as she swings it. _Missing me completely._ I continue charging at her with my weapon, stabbing her with the knife. She howls in pain before kicking me in the shin. I fall to the ground, grasping my leg.

"You stupid 9 rat!" She shouts, pulling her sword to my head. However, before it can make contact with my head... Botan runs in and tackles the 7 girl to the ground. They begin to fight with their fists... too bad the District 7 girl is stronger than Botan.

As the District 7 girl begins to overpower Botan, I jump up and try to stop the District 7 girl. However, she just turns around elbows me in the leg. I fall to the ground once again before sliding across the frozen ground.

However, my distraction gave Botan enough time to push the 7 girl off of her. She quickly grabs her sword before jumping in for an attack. The District 7 girl dodges the sword before promptly punching Botan in the nose.

 **"BOOM!"** A canon goes off, shaking the foundation of the mountain. "NORTH!" Botan shouts randomly. The District 7 girl grabs her weapon before charging at me. I turn around and just barely avoid her axe. "JUST DIE!" She shouts, going in for another swing.

I dodge it once more before she charges and tackles me to the ground. Botan quickly comes to my aid and goes in for a strike at the 7 girls head. She ducks under it but it doesn't stop Botan from quickly kicking the District 7 girl off of me.

She falls over next to me and I quickly push myself away from her. The District 7 girl glares at the two of us. "You two piss me off." She announces. I glare. "Why? Because we're managing to kick your asses even though we've never trained at all." I say.

She stays silent before jumping back up at Botan and me. Botan charges in with her sword once again. However, since the 7 girl is blinded by all this rage, she is quickly stabbed. "GAH!" She shouts as Botan quickly ejects her sword from the 7 girls abdomen.

"I don't hear the canon. She isn't dead yet." I tell Botan. "Don't worry about that. I need the crossbow, hand it over he-," She isn't able to finish... and I see why.

I'm a milosecond late... the arrow has already hit her in her chest...

Her body hits the snow. My eyes widen as the girl from 1 grins, putting her bow back on her quiver.

 **"BOOM!"** A canon rings, though not for Botan...

"That's... for everything!" Clissa shouts. "Y-You... WHY DID YOU!" I grab out my knife and throw it at her. The District 1 girl aims to dodge it... but it lands in her skull.

 **"BOOM!"** Another canon booms. I run down to Botans side... She's bleeding out from her chest. "B-Botan..." I run down to her side. "I-I'm... I'm to far gone by this point to save. Then again, this was my destiny." She closes her eyes as tears begin to fall.

"No. Please don't leave me." I say to her. She shakes her head. She seems to be crying. "Dagan... I can never understand you. I told you not to be afraid of death. I won't either." She gives me a tearful smile.

"You can't go though." I begin crying. I lay me head on her chest. "D-Dagan... only one could win anyways..." She looks up at me. I stop and think before she shakes her head. "In a sense... you're the victor." She utters out the words. She feels her breath deteriorating. I become desperate. "B-Botan! Please! I can't." I shout.

"Then listen." She coughs. I stop and listen.

"North. Shoot the crossbow north of here. We only have so much time left." She tells me, looking over to the crossbow. I run over to it and aim it north.

"The canon was over there... when you shoot it... the whole forcefield will explode. We can sabotage the games..." She explains. I turn around in shock. "But won't that kill both of us?" I ask.

"Does that matter? You said *cough* that it didn't matter if you died or not, just how." She says these words quickly. As I aim the thing upwards towards where the canon fired, she says one last thing.

"D-Dagan. Before I go... please... can you..." She begins. "Kiss you?" I ask, desperation in my voice. She gives me an awkward look. "Okay, yeah, that." She says.

I give her a kiss on the head before she gives me a sad smile. "Goodbye." She says. I can't understand why she's so easy about dying right now, but I'm distracted by my sadness and anger in my voice.

I put an arrow in the crossbow. The arrow turns red and I aim it for the canon sounder. I fire the thing at it. However, the forcefield suddenly makes a glow... before turning back to normal..

"What?" I reload the thing before shooting again. I fire over... and over... and over... no results.

"Botan?" I go back to her...

 **"BOOM!" "BOOM!" "BOOM!"** The 3 canons fire.

"BOTAN!" I shout, running over to her body. I want to shout to her. However, I've only proven myself as a failure... the forcefield is unbreakable...

"DAMN IT! DAMN YOU ALL! WHY?" I put my head to her chest... tears pouring like rain from my eyes.

 **"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the winner of the 99th Annual Hunger Games... Dagan Hodaka!"** My name is announced, I begin crying heavier...

 _Botan..._

* * *

 _It's over! It's all done! The Hunger Games chapters have been completed. I'm actually quit surprised. Though the story was originally supposed to take place over 13-19 days... I had to shorten it to 9... and the 6. You'll understand more as to what Botan was planning in one of the last chapters. I'll see you then._


	15. Aftermath

I feel groggy as I begin to wake up. _W-Where am I?_ My thought processing abilities feel broken for some reason. As I look around, I notice lights.

I notice someone turning around and noticing that I'm waking up. _Wait? Hunger Games!_ I go to grab my sickle. _It isn't near me..._

Since my vision is blurry still though, I can't completely see who's there. However, that doesn't stop me from getting up and going in to tackle that person to the ground. Right as I get up though, the person pushes me back into my bed.

"Dagan! Quite it!" Oam shouts at me. _Oam?_ She puts me back on the bed. "W-What... What happened?" I ask. She rolls her eyes before grabbing my shoulders.

"You won." She tells me. "I-I won?" I ask. She doesn't smile or anything, she doesn't seem very happy that she just brought a tribute home in fact. Her face is shinning with some small worry.

"Obviously. The doctors already healed you up and everything. I'd recommend sleeping a little more. You know, since you have interviews tomorrow." She tells me. That's when I remember everything. That 5 days that I was in the Hunger Games. Every tribute that I watched die in the bloodbath, every friend I watched die... Botan...

I shake my head. Oam sadly closes her eyes before going through the doors to leave. However, before she can, I mutter something. "Why?" I ask. She turns around and stops. "Just why? Why did this even need to happen?" I ask.

She gives me a look. She turns back to the door before leaving. The door shuts and I slam my head against my bed. _Did it have to happen?_

My eyes begin closing and once again, I find myself falling asleep...

* * *

"So. It seems you're up." A voice says to me, waking me up. I turn to my right, expecting a doctor or something. However, the sight I'm greeted with makes me jump.

President Ramia, sitting right next to my bed. "Hello." He waves. I can barely even communicate words from my mouth considering that it's the President of Panem sitting next to me. _Did I do something bad? Oh no, oh no._

"Don't worry kid, you didn't do anything... yet." He tells me. I begin to sit up. "Yet?" I ask him. He laughs before giving me a serious nod. He studies me, looking at me for... something.

"I have a question." He says. "W-what is it?" I ask. He stands above my bed. "What did you do during the ending to the games? Your final act..." He asks. I go back and remember. Botan... she ordered me to shot a crossbow at the arena forcefield. I never understood why.

"Botan suddenly told me to shoot at the arena forcefield. I never understood why." I explain. He thinks about my answer for a second. "Do you... know much about the girl?" He asks. I stop myself from groaning. I want to cancel out the thoughts of Botan... All of them. However, I force them back. Just this once.

He sits on my bed. "Well... I just needed to know somethings. Also, take this card." He hands me a card. It has a _100_ written on it. I go and look up at him once again. "What's this?" I ask.

"An envelope... I need it tomorrow so keep it safe." He says, getting off my bed before leaving the room. I wanted to question of why he's letting me borrow it. Does he want me to open it or somet-,

"Oh yeah. And don't open it." He tells me. I give him a nod as he leaves. I slam my head on the back of my hospital bed. They asked me to rest more but I can't sleep anymore. I just can't.

What's worse is that the memory of Botan seeps into my head once again... I feel tears beginning to form as I find myself crying. "Why. Why did you have to go." I put my face into a pillow and sob. Then again, if she hadn't died... _Then again..._

I dry up my eyes and begin to wander my thoughts. All the memories of my alliance only now begin to catch up with me. I don't think I had time to think in the arena... but now that I'm out, everything hurts.

Watching Weave mourn his parents... before dying the same way they did. Coba failing to protect Rena before protecting us and dying... Plutark telling us to go one without us... before dying. Atlus' plea that she didn't want to die... Botan kissing me...

I cry even more now. _I'm sorry everyone... Why did you have to go so soon..._

* * *

 ** _The Next Day..._**

* * *

Anat hands me my outfit for the interviews. It's identical to my original interview outfit. However, there is a purple number 9 near the top that stands tall and proud. "Purple represents the royalty." She explains. However, the smile that she dawned when I first met her has changed to an unchanging frown of seriousness.

I give her a nod. "Do you want me to say that I'm... royalty?" I ask. She shakes her head. "No. You just need to be yourself. You'll go up there and be like the common person." She explains. I give another nod.

However, she puts her hand on my shoulder. "Can you try not to... cry." She asks me. I give her a scowl. "I-I just watched... everyone die... and you're aski-," I begin.

"I know. I saw it all happen live and sometimes... I found it impossible to watch. However, you need to listen." She tells me. I close my eyes and sigh. "You're going to go up there... and not cry. Don't let the audience know how much the games broke you. Stay strong, and show the Capitol what it means to be who you are." She says.

I give a sad nod and go to put on my outfit.

 _Show the Capitol what it means to be who I am? Like a rebel... huh..._ I wouldn't say I was exactly rebellious. I did nothing noteworthy in the games. I did flip off that camera pre-games but that was it.

I get ready. The interviews are going to be stressful...

* * *

 _ **Hours Later...**_

* * *

"So here he comes! The victor of the 99th Annual Hunger Games!" Ceaser [Junior] announces my name. I give a sigh as Oam puts her hand on my back. She gives me a nod and a kiss to the head. "Good luck." She says.

Though feeling a little awkward (Because that kiss to the head came from nowhere...), I give her a hug back before stepping on the stage. The crowd erupts, giving me a round of an applause. I wave at the crowd with a good smile on my face before giving a handshake to ceaser. The young man gives me a nod and lets me sit down.

I sit down and the interview begins. "So... how's it feel." He asks. "Wait, the victory of the chair because I'd say both..." I begin, everyone laughs. _Got em._

"Well to be honest, your chair is pretty nice. Mind if we trade?" He laughs. "We're live on TV so, nah." I shake my head. As the crowd calms down, Ceaser begins to ask the questions.

"So let's be honest. How does it feel to be victorious." He asks. I think about it for a moment. _Painful... painful memories crowd my head._ However, I'm forced to hold my thoughts back. "Uh... well, it feel... different." I lie. The crowd buys it though and I try my hardest to push back my memories.

"Well to be fair. You became the youngest victor in years winning the games." Ceaser nods. I turn to him. _Oh yeah._ "Wait, really?" I ask. He gives a nod. "Though Finnick beats you by a few weeks, you're pretty close." He explains.

I really wish I was a little bit older though. I would have been able to take this win much better. After we have a few laughs and a few more questions are asked (All of which I forgot after answering, I just don't care anymore), we begin the replay.

However, in a confusing twist... it begins with the reapings. I watch as me and Botan stand on the stage. Later, it goes to the training and shows us sitting together like friends. Matter of fact, they have music in the background... all of which are very meant to make someone cry.

By the time we get to the games, it shows the two of us giving a nod before she mouths that she's sorry. After the gong rings, she grabs the bag and I go into the bloodbath. After retrieving the sickle and spear, I head out into the woods. However, it quickly cuts to the District 6 Male and District 8 Females death... in close detail too.

I grit my teeth, remembering those events. That gut feeling in my stomach. I felt pained just remembering it. It feels worse seeing it happen again. Still though, as the games go on, our alliance converges.

It quickly hurries along to the next day, when we encountered the careers. It shows my kill and my fearful reaction. It feels terrible seeing it again. _I... I killed her..._

Though after the fight, we get back with our alliance and sit around before the Ram shows up, kills Rena, before we kill it. Matter of fact, a lot of detail was put into showing us the full extent of her death. Her hitting the tree, her eyes going white as she hit the ground before the canon boomed... *Sigh*.

Later on, District 8 comes up from the plains because of Weave's memories. The explosions happen and I watch him burn to a crisp and incinerate into ash and dust. Same with Coba... dying by using his body as a human shield. However, he surprisingly managed to get out of the thing alive... but the camera shows his back... scorched with blood.

He mouths both his brothers name and Rena's name before the canon booms. It continues with our group running through the woods where we meet Atlus. However, another quick cut occurs at the point when we fight the careers again. Plutark is quickly knocked out as we run away. It quickly cuts to somewhere in the middle of the woods.

The strip off his shirt and start torturing him. Stabbing him over and over... but as lightly as they can to keep him alive. They endlessly beat him through the night until the District 4 Male accidentally kills him.

The District 7 Female gets upset and the remaining careers fight each other. After that, they begin to head up the mountains where the eventually fight us in the finale.

A battle ensues. Atlus is killed... and it details all the blood the flows out of her body as she cries. My face coming close to falling with tears. I pinch myself to stop. Ceaser keeps a close eye on me throughout the the video though, making sure if I cry or not.

Then, as me and Botan finally gain our edge. It goes slow motion as the arrow pierces Botan and she dies. However, it glosses over our kiss goodbye... quickly ending in my victory of sadness... loneliness...

"And that was it!" Ceaser says to the crowd who applaud. Me and Ceaser both stand up. I can't help but notice that my eyes feel kind of red so I give a smile to the crowd before bowing.

"Any last things you want to say before you go home?" Ceaser asks. I think for a moment. _Lots of things... a lot of terrible things actually._ My thoughts echo. I don't want to say anything that would upset the crowd. However, they all stare at me blankly... I need to say something. Not something against the Capitol, but something that would force them to think...

"Yeah actually." I nod. Everything goes silent. I clear my throat and begin.

"Yeah... Uh... Well... It was truly an experience fighting in the games, with all of them." I start. "Every single one of them... they were all... amazing people in their own way. Weave... he was very energeric and fun to have around, Plutark was clever and good at keeping us together. Atlus, she was also very fun to have around." I explain each tribute.

"I also loved her endless amount of questions. Rena... she seemed like such a nice person... Coba. He protected all of us to the very end. I wish he could have been with us longer. And then... Botan... you shipped us didn't you?" I look to the crowd.

"To be honest... I wish they were all here with us. It hurt, watching them be ripped from reality. I've always wondered, why does this need to happen. Maybe you've asked it yourself. If you haven't, maybe you should imagine it... put yourself in it... I don't know, I'm just rambling." I say, standing back.

The crowd stays silent. _At least we know they're thinking..._

However, they turn to cheers. _Wait? What?_ I turn to my right to notice President Ramia coming on stage right after. _Did I do something wrong?_ I shake as he jumps onto the stage and applauds me.

"Pst. You still have the card..." He holds out his hand. I remember that Anat reminded me to put it in my back pocket so I quickly pull it out and hand it to him. He gives me a nod before turning to the crowd.

"As we all know, the 100th Annual Hunger Games is upon us. That year will be a quarter quell and as we all know, these events are different from the usual Hunger Games." He says to the crowd.

The crowd begins to cheer and now I feel a lump in my throat. _The 100th Hunger Games. The 4th quarter quell? Why is he here to talk about it... and why now?_

"In the 25th Hunger Games, as a reminder that the Districts chose to rebel, the Districts were told to vote in their tributes. The Victor that year was Meri Sutherland of District 4." The crowd erupted into cheers. Both from excitement of the announcement of the quells and the mention of Meri Sutherland. She was a very popular victor in her day. She's half alive by this point but that can't be helped. She was in her early 90s.

"The 50th Hunger Games... As a reminder to the Districts that two rebels died for every Capitol citizen, twice the amount of victors were reaped. The victor that year was the late Haymicth Abernathy."

Though the crowd cheered again, it was much smaller this time. _Probably because of the rare instances of reruns or footage of the 50th games ever being shown. Hell, I've heard rumours that it still hasn't been shown in District 1, 6, 7, 8 and 12..._

 _And even before that, President Snow had originally made sure the footage would never be seen again... though after his death, it became available._

Besides that, Haymitch was also known for being an alcoholic and by this time, he had been dead for years because of alcohol poisoning. However, President Kuma didn't care and he was going to go on.

"*Ahem* The 75th Hunger Games... As a reminder of the families torn apart during the Dark Days, entire families children were reaped instead of just 1 tribute. This could mean 2-15+ children could be reaped. The winner that year was Cella morcona of District 5."

The crowd once again erupted. She was a very popular victor as well but she had spent most of the past 25 years hiding away in her home back in 5. I recall Oam mentioning her once after the 1st day of training. Oam had gone to talk to her, but she wasn't on the District 5 floor.

President Ramia cleared his throat before smiling at the crowd. He opened up the envelope that I gave him and looked at the cameras. _Oh shit. He's about to announce the Quarter Quell twist._

It could be anything... worst case scenario, I'm thrown into the games again.

However, I toss that aside and I think of the present. _What could it be?_ The crowd is silent, all on the edge of their seats. Awaiting the announcement.

President Ramia turns back to me, giving a grin. He quickly turns back to the crowd.

 **"To remind the Districts that rebellion is guaranteed a punishment from the Capitol no matter how hard you try; the Capitol Audience is allowed to vote on the 100th Hunger Games' twist. Or should I say Twists... Yes, more than one. Up to 5 may be used." He announces.**

The words echo throughout the building. Then the crowd erupts. I'm left with a baffled face. _Vote the twist? The Capitol audience will vote... our fate?_

I'm left stunned. That could mean almost anything. They could do anything... I won't know until it happens.

"We will also have a contest for the arena design. It's all up to you..." He says to the crowd. After that Ceaser, President Ramia and I all bow before I leave the stage." I have a very guilty look on my face.

Oam has a very agitated look, her arms folded in anger. "This... This is crude!" She shouts. "I'm sorry..." I quietly say.

"Oh. No, you did a good job up there." She admits, not looking down at me. Her face is full of anger. Anat, sitting over in the corner, has a worried face.

"When we go home tomorrow Dagan... I want to explain something to you..." Oam says to me. I give her a nod. _This is all... strange..._

* * *

District 8 Train

As the victor of the 98th Annual Hunger Games, he obviously hated the games and the quarter quell was just one thing that he didn't want to think about. He sneaked onto a train back to his home in 8. Nobody in the Capitol liked him anyways. Lint, The 18 year old victor just sighed as President Ramia left the stage.

The crowd was loud and everybody was shouting and cheering. The audience now has a chance to vote on a twist. Lints face showed pure anger. _"Vote your twist?"_ _A good distraction for those freaks._ He looked at the 99th games victor... Dagan of District 9... He looked very concerned with the reveal.

Lint gave an angry glare. He wished he could throw a shoe at him, blow him up. Lint hoped that his games would set a chain of events that could set the Districts free from the chains of the Capitol but _no..._ this kid had to play by the f*cking rules and let his friends die. Recently though, some Capitol children had been openly protesting the games.

Maybe his chain reaction was working? Well... just like in his games... it was only going to go so far...

* * *

 **District 11**

Connie Wilden just stared at her TV in disbelief. She looked down at her two children... Alma **(All-Ma)** , her 15 year old boy who worked heavily and hard everyday. He glared at the TV. He also looked down to his younger brother. Connie also looked at her youngest child. Altar... only 11 years old. His first reapings would be in the next year.

She closed her eyes. _If anything happens to my poor son next year... don't let him become like dear Rue..._

Connie quickly shook her head from the thought. She didn't like going over what happened to her poor older sister... Rue had only died 25 years ago after all. Besides that, What chance would there be for Altar to be reaped in the next year? Yes, it may have happened to many other tributes but it was as rare as lightning striking a human. Though she just had to bite her tounge... many tributes from this years games had very young tributes.

"What if I'm picked?" Altar finally asked. Alma gave him a smile. "Don't worry Alt. I'd volunteer." Alma smiled. "Oh really now?" Altar replied with a face that just says he knows his older brother is lying. Connie laughed and the others joined in. _Hopefully... she would be right to laugh..._

* * *

 _Yeah, I didn't exactly slow down in this chapter and I didn't really like it until the very end. Also, some foreshadowing of my next story._

 _Anyhow, did any of you guys like this idea for the 100th games? Tell me. Also, we have only one more chapter left after this. Can't wait to have Oam explain literally EVERYTHING!_


	16. Goodbyes

As the train begins quickly speeding away from the Capitol, I feel an urgent sense of deja vu. I keep reminding myself that I won. Though I don't want to have any memories of the finale. Those thoughts bite away at my memories like a Caterpillar eating away leaves. Oam walks into the living areas... the same area where she introduced herself to me and Botan.

I quickly look over at the spot she sat in. _Nothing..._ Oam has a face of disappointment as she enters the room and sits in Botans spot. She is silent for a moment before turning over to me.

"You cared for her. Right?" She asks. "No... I think I loved her..." I admit, my inside scrambles around at the thought. We had only just met... but we both seemed alike. We came close, but of course only one of us could win.

"Really... even I knew she wasn't coming home. Now that I think about it, for the most part, I knew you were the only one coming home." Oam admits. I look up, confused.

"What?" I ask. She just sighs before sitting back in Botan's spot. "I already told you that I'm here to explain everything..." She tells me, annoyed.

"Everything? What do you mean by everything? I already know enough. I know why you never liked to speak to other tributes... or why your so hard to underst-," I begin.

"By everything, I mean that your games were rigged in a certain way." She yells, annoyed by me. I stop. "Rigged? Were the reapings rigged?" I ask.

"No." She tells me. After another silence, she begins to explain. "You see... I sort of knew Botan." She closes her eyes. "Wait? You did? Then, how come you ignor-," I begin.

"Why not! I pitied her! You saw her face at the reapings... right?" She asks. "Uh... Yeah. She looked nervous." I remind her. Oam looks me in the eyes. "Did you see how well she did in the games?" She glares.

I sit back. "Uh... yeah?" I nod. "Reminder, she's a 14 year old." She explains. I think about it. She got a 9... The highest for a 14 year old. "Now I want you to listen to every word from here on. You need to know." She tells me. I nod.

"Plutark and Botan were both apart of a sort of rebellion created by some Capitol runaways. It formed in District 5 before spreading to 3, 7 and 9." She explains. My eyes widen. "A rebellion? Wait? Who else is apart of this?" I ask.

"I can't list exactly everyone. Because of communication, we're unable to explain everything. However, Cella told me Plutark was apart of the rebellion. However, his age had confused me. We do have some people from the Capitol as well." She tells me.

"Do they have any... high positions?" I ask. Oam shakes her head. "Currently unsure. However, it is possible that the Capitol knows about us. It could be why our rebels were all under 15..." She admits.

I think back to our games. Botan and Plutark mostly held up our group. Also, she had been given a bag with a sword which was very close to her pedal stool.

"I think it's safe to assume we have someone working with the Gamemakers in our rebellion." I admit. "Yeah... but this could spell a few issues..." She admits. "Like how?" I ask.

"The head Gamemaker, Rena Allerdyce, she must watch the others and our tributes more closely. You know how you kept dying quickly on the first few days? She must have found Botan and Plutarks backgrounds and used them to her advantage." She tells me.

I nod before asking another question. "So why was Botan in the games... why did Plutark go to form that alliance?" I ask. "Because our plan was to bring enough of us together, blow out the arena and either die because we broke the arena... or escape..." She closes her eyes.

"So that's why Botan made me do that?" I begin to decode everything. "We trained some of the volunteers. I think our Capitol rebel may have rigged the reapings over the past few years. That's why the lower Districts have been doing better. Recently, we've been taking advantage and trying to pull huge rebellious acts." She says.

"Like Lint..." I admit. "Actually, Cecelia told me that this wasn't apart of the plan. He thought it was too weak and wouldn't change much." She explains.

"Well to be honest, nearly killing every tribute at once in order to make sure it had no victor was a pretty smart move..." I nod. "Very rash though. It still hurts watching that." Oam sighs.

"If only we had it better next year though. After this years game along with Lint from last year... I can't really say this rebellion will survive." She shakes her head.

"We will..." I say. Oam turns to me. "Even if we fail... we will come back... and even if we fail again... it'll come back. Sure, they have food, weapons, soldiers... but who made those?" I ask.

Oam smiles at me before nodding. "I can see why you won." She nods at me. The train continues speeding away in the sunlight. _I can't wait to go home..._

However, as I lay on a comfortable pillow, I think about my family. Dad will be happy to see me come home. Stovall must be shocked. I also have a new... big house to look forward to...

Though my thoughts go back to Botan. I force away the tears that come back and try to think with more... easygoing thoughts. _What if she won? Would she be crying over my death? Actually, no, she was tougher than that? What if we came home together? Would we both become closer? How would it work?_ Though I stop.

Every thought ends up with the words 'what if' reminding me that it's all in vain. Though my eyes begin drifting, I want to stay awake since it hasn't gotten dark yet...Though I fall asleep anyways.

However, I'm dropped straight into a nightmare. I find myself in the howling wind of a winter snowstorm. Thankfully, I manage to find Coba in the snowstorm. He pushes me into the snow though.

"YOU LET US DIE!" He yells in my face. I open my mouth to speak, but my voice falls silent into the void known as winter. Weave walks up through some trees. His family right behind him.

"Don't worry, I found my family here." His face is scarred by the explosions and is pretty much pure black. He gives a slasher smile before vanishing. As the winter wind begins to get worse, it chips away at Coba's face... before it leaves nothing of him left.

I'm left alone again... scared... cold... crying. The shouts of other tributes pierce my ears. However, they all shout the same things. "It shouldn't have ended this way. I-I don't want to die..." It cries.

Atlus... Atlus... Atlus... She's still crying...

The District 4 girl walks out of the bushes... my curved sickle sticking out of her. She gives me a sarcastic applause before ripping the spear out of her stomach and falling to the ground.

Then... I find Botan sitting down on a rock near a lake. She's crying... Considering how I've watched all these things happen to everyone... I try to force myself to ignore her. However, the wind pushes me over to her. I land next to her.

She looks down to me. "So you've arrived..." She continues crying. "Botan... please forgive me." I begin to cry as well. "I don't need to. I need you to do something though." She says.

I look up at her. "I want you to forgive me... for leaving you so soon. I knew I was going to die from the start... but I wish I could have stayed with you longer." She hugs me.

"Me too." I cry. We both find each other crying. "Why should this matter. You're nothing but my imagination, hurt me emotionally like the others have done already." I yell.

She sighs. "Yeah, not exactly a person who cares about reality or not. Just... Just I already told you not to be afraid of death. It had to hit either one of us... can you just accept that?" She asks.

Then I see the purpose of this nightmare... "B-Bota-," I begin. "No. You said it yourself. I'm all just your imagination." She smiles, slowly vanishing into the snow.

The tears flood back. "Goodbye, Dagan." She says, hugging me before she vanishes... forever.

Immediately, I'm awoken. I feel a little tearful. _Was that... her spirit or something?_ I shake my head. That sounds like something worthy of fanfiction...

I look out the window, it's dark... I wonder what's going to happen in District 9 when I come home... will they be happy? Devastated because our plan failed? Hm...

 _Only time will tell... just I need to worry about next year..._

* * *

 **Dagan Hodaka, Victor of the 99th Annual Hunger Games, District 9. At only 14 years old, he managed to survive the games he was placed into. However, watching his alliance members protect him broke him beyond repair. He returned home... to find his dad missing.**

 **Without any real family (Outside of Stovall who was unwilling due to his parents being pretty bad), Oam treated Dagan as if he was her son. They would become very close during the later years... however, the increasing size of the rebellion was worrying the Capitol.**

 **The 98th Hunger Games had proved that the Districts were slowly drifting from Capitol rule... the 99th had been an attempt to counter that... it only barely succeed in that plan. The 100th Games would need to prove Capitol superiority and quell the next rebellion...**

 **Though the style of the 99th Hunger Games needed to be replicated. Reaping mostly younger tributes was the start. The anxiety was great in the Districts. Also, they inflated the scores. The games became very unexpected because of that.**

 **President Ramia's main thoughts remained on the District 5 Male (Plutark) and the District 9 Female (Botan). He had learned that Plutark was a 15 year old boy from a District 5 rebellion group. They had been surprising the Capitol Audience with their tributes in some of the previous Hunger Games. However, this year was supposed to be their year. Thankfully, they did a Bait and Switch with the rebels. Making them think that the reapings were rigged in their favor... only to rig their youngest and in-experienced. Though he reminded himself, it almost blew up in his face.**

 **The District 9 girl... she was dangerous. Her parent's rebellious deeds throughout the years have reduced the Sunbul name to infamy. Though the bait and switch reapings were good, he knew that it was a bad idea having Botan in the games...**

 **What would have happened... if they succeeded. He thought to himself. Was he too merciful? It was most likely his fault that the Districts were quietly rebelling. Maybe he could move to the more cruel and oppressive order of late President Snow?**

 **However, he just needed to hope that whatever the Capitol could do for the 100th Games... he just hoped they would work...**

* * *

 _And that is all folks! The 99th Hunger Games story has concluded. I'll admit, the story started out pretty bad and their are some moments that I feel I didn't explain as good as I could, but still. I feel like I made the message quite apparent with this series. Really, it's only 1 out of 3 major stories in this final rebellion (It's the middle child). Originally, it was an experiment, but now I feel throwing you in the middle of all of it made it more realistic._

 _You don't exactly know everything yet. However, when we go back to the 98th Hunger Games... well... you'll know a lot. Thanks for reading! Goodbye!_

 _P.S. This is my 2nd completed story... Yay!_


End file.
